a. [f. prec. + -AL.]
1. Of or pertaining to the ‘four elements,’ earth, air, fire, and water, or to any one of them.
1519. Interl. Four Elements, in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 11. The lower region, called the elemental.
1561. Eden, Arte Nauig., I. iv. The worlde is deuided into two regions: Celestiall, and Elementall.
1635. Swan, Spec. M. (1670), 465. The … purifying both of the Elements and Heavens in their Elemental qualities.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 169. All subsists by elemental strife.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1858), 73. Mixing the deep note of love with the elemental music.
1831. Carlyle, Sartor Res., II. vi. 98. With no prospect of breakfast beyond elemental liquor. Ibid. (1851), Sterling, III. ii. (1872), 174. Elemental tumults, and blustering wars of sea and sky.
† 2. Composed of, or produced by, the elements; material as opposed to spiritual; inorganic as opposed to vital; ‘material’ as opposed to ‘formal’; also, in the condition of raw material. Obs.
1574. Whitgift, Def. Aunsw., II. Wks. 1851, I. 255. An external thing and elemental, but not indifferent.
1577. Dee, Relat. Spir., I. (1659), 391. All Elemental Creatures.
1601–2. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 80 b. The law considereth not bare and elementall bodies, but bodies apparelled.
1605. Timme, Quersit., Ded. 2. Without the which [the spirit] the elemental and material character … profiteth not.
1610. Histrio-m., VI. 131. This elementall bodie (thus compact) Is but a scattred Chaos of revenge.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 35. A kind of massacre whereof the execution ends not in the slaying of an elementall life.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. vii. 121. Nor is onely an animall heate required hereto [for hatching eggs], but an elementall and artificiall warmth will suffice.
† b. absol. (quasi-sb. in pl.) The bread and wine of the Eucharist considered apart from their consecration. Obs.
a. 1656. Vines, Lord’s Supp. (1677), 298. The elementals of bread and wine.
† 3. Applied to fire, in two different senses (cf. ELEMENTARY 3). a. Material, physical, literal, as opposed to ‘spiritual’ or figurative; also, such as exists in this lower world. b. In its (hypothetical) pure condition, as opposed to the impure form in which it is actually known. Obs.
1533. Hylton’s Scala Perf., God is not fyre elementall [1494 elementare].
1627. E. F., Hist. Edw. II. (1680), 6. Majestick thoughts, like Elemental fire, should tend still upwards.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 99, ¶ 4. Vanish like elemental fire.
1755. Young, Centaur, i. Wks. 1757, IV. 129. A fire elemental is diffused through all nature.
4. Pertaining to the powers or agencies of physical nature. Elemental spirits, gods, etc.: those which are personifications of natural phenomena, or are associated with particular departments of nature. So elemental worship, religion.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. i. Elemental Genii … From Heaven’s star-fretted domes.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. v. 231. Elemental worship of the grossest kind.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 42. To rise to intercourse with these elemental spirits of nature was the highest aim of the philosopher.
1875. Merivale, Gen. Hist. Rome, lxviii. (1877), 554. He continued to serve his elemental fetiche, and introduced the rude black stone which represented the Sun.
1876. Gladstone, Homeric Synchr., 109. Amphitrite appears in the Odyssey only as an elemental power.
b. fig. Comparable to the great forces of nature.
1820. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 42 (1822), I. 336. A bold elemental imagination.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, i. 21. All great force is real and elemental. There is no manufacturing a strong will.
1873. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. II. 287. With an elemental movement like the shifting of mighty winds.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc., Ser. I. 175. The freedom and elemental grandeur of Byron.
† 5. Pertaining to the sky; also, governed by celestial influences. (Cf. ELEMENT sb. 10.) Obs.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, A j. Dystyllacyon is an elementall thyng.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. H vj b. They obserued … the elemental signes & tokens in the firmament.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, I. xlvii. An elemental and ascentive soul.
6. Of the nature of an ultimate constituent, whether of material or non-material things; esp. of physical substances, simple, uncompounded.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 362. Elementall substances.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., 113. Without the elementall, true, genuine, homogeneall entity of the compositum.
1773. Monboddo, Language (1774), I. III. v. 482. The division of elemental sounds into Vowels and Consonants.
1821. Shelley, Epipsych., 437. As clear as elemental diamond.
1851. Brimley, Ess., 115. Elemental passions and affections.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xiv. (1878), 364. Minerals and the elemental substances.
1863. E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 207. The primitive elemental operations of thought.
7. That is an essential or integrant part of any unity; constituent.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, I. xiii. (1840), 21. The four elemental nations whereof this army was compounded.
1805. Ann. Rev., III. 254. Mere seasonings in the cauldron of public opinion, not its elemental ingredients.
1874. Motley, Barneveld, I. vii. 311. The few simple but elemental fibres which make up the tissue of most human destinies.
8. Relating to the beginnings or first principles of learning; rudimentary; = ELEMENTARY 6. rare in mod. use.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist., 30. Them [Epistles] that haue need of an elemental introduction.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 68. Everie elementall worde of arte.
1624. Wotton, Archit., in Reliq. (1672), 5. Some … Method … shortest and most Elemental.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 290. Elemental training to those higher and more large regards.
1841. Hor. Smith, Moneyed Man, II. x. 328. An elemental work upon astronomy.
1855. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Lit., x. (1878), 334. Elemental truths, which have been assailed by some of the heresies of the day.
Hence † Elementalish a. (Alchemy.) Pure, uncompounded, lying at the base of other substances. Obs. rare–1. Elementalism, nonce-wd., worship of the elementary powers of nature.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., viii. 120. The Elementalish Gold … lies hid in many Earths.
1863. Duff, in Chr. Work, July, 273. Elementalism, if I may coin a word, the worship chiefly of the Fire, the Air, the Water and the Sun.
