[ad. late L. energīa, Gr. ἐνέργεια, f. ἐνεργής, f. ἐν + ἔργον work. Cf. Fr. énergie. Senses 1 and 2 belong to ἐνέργεια as used by Aristotle, whereas sense 5 answers to that of Gr. δύναμις.]
1. With reference to speech or writing: Force or vigor of expression.
[This sense (found in late L. and in Romanic) is originally derived from an imperfect understanding of Aristotle’s use of ἐνέργεια (Rhet. III. xi. § 2) for the species of metaphor which calls up a mental picture of something ‘acting’ or moving. In mod. use it blends with 3.]
[1581. Sidney, Def. Poesie (Arb.), 67. That same forciblenes, or Energia, (as the Greekes cal it) of the writer.]
1599. Thynne, Animadv., 42. The frenche Hollybande, not vnderstandinge the true energye of our tongue.
1669. W. Holder, Elem. Speech, 8 (J.). When animated by Elocution, it [Speech] acquires a greater life, and energie.
1729. Stackhouse, Body Divin., IV. i. § 2. These are all of them terms of a peculiar energy.
1845. Whately, Rhet. (1850), 203. The transposition of words which the ancient languages admit of, conduces, not merely to variety, but to Energy.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Shaks., Wks. (Bohn), I. 357. The Liturgy, admired for its energy and pathos.
† b. transf. Impressiveness (of an event). Obs.
1764. Harmer, Observ., II. 7. This thunder … added considerably to the energy of this event [Saul’s inauguration].
2. Exercise of power, actual working, operation, activity; freq. in philosophical language. † Formerly also concr.: The product of activity, an effect.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 938 (J.). They are not Effectiue of any Thing; Nor leaue no Worke behinde them; But are Energies meerely.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, Gloss., Energie … is the operation, efflux or activity of any being: as the light of the Sunne is the energie of the Sunne, and every phantasm of the soul is the energie of the soul.
1644–52. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., VIII. v. (1821), 399. Their life is nothing else but a strong energy of fancy and opinion.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. v. 87. The conceited remedy … carryeth often the honour of the capitall energie, which had no finger in it.
1744. Harris, Three Treat. (1841), 18. Call every production, the parts of which exist successively … a motion or an energy: thus a tune and a dance are energies.
1798. Bay, Amer. Law Rep. (1809), I. 23. Naturalization had a retrospective energy.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanat., ii. 42. The transition of the passions from momentary energies to settled dispositions.
1859. Sir W. Hamilton, Lect. (1877), II. xxi. 25. The faculty of which this act of revocation is the energy, I call the Reproductive.
† b. Effectual operation; efficacy. Obs.
1712. Smalridge, Serm., 9 (J.). Beg the Blessed Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to give an Energy to their Imperfect Prayers.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XX. 226. Blows have more energy than airy words.
3. Vigor or intensity of action, utterance, etc. Hence as a personal quality: The capacity and habit of strenuous exertion.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 37. To lose the general and lasting consequences of rare and virtuous energy.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, V. 110. The prudence and energy displayed at this critical juncture by Agesilaus.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Prudence, Wks. (Bohn), I. 93. The poet admires the man of energy and tactics.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 726. He took his measures with his usual energy and dexterity.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xi. 121. When the hatches were opened, the flame burst out with energy.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. i. 71. Henry, with the full energy of his fiery nature, was flinging himself into a quarrel.
4. Power actively and efficiently displayed or exerted. Sometimes in pl. in same sense.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., xii. 66–7. If this motive Energie … must be called Heat … I contend not.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 185. Soils … which act with the greatest chemical energy in preserving Manures.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., Introd. 2. Impress the mind with some notion of the energy that maintains them [the heavenly bodies] in their motions. Ibid., iii. 15. The disturbing energy of the planets.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 7. 51. Others struggle with the slow energy of a behemoth through the débris.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. 24. The united energies of two horses, two men, four wheels, and a plum-pudding carriage dog.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 1. Throwing all their energies into worldly concerns.
b. pl. Individual powers in exercise; activities.
1693. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 24 (J.). How can that Concussion of Atoms be capable of begetting … Powers and Energies that we feel in our Minds.
1783. in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 160. Nature unquestionably abounds with numberless unthought-of energies, and modes of working.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, III. xvi. There might his soul develope best Its strengthening energies.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, vii. § 2. 184. A measure of license is necessary to exhibit the individual energies of things.
1861. May, Const. Hist. (1863), I. i. 6. The troublesome energies of Parliament.
5. Power not necessarily manifested in action; ability or capacity to produce an effect.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. 26. We find in so small a particle of a created Being this admirable energy.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. xxiii. Some vain Authors have essayed in print to give reasons for such energy of that Fish.
a. 1732. Atterbury, Serm. (1737), IV. ix. (T.). Discoursing of the Energy and Power of Church Musick.
a. 1862. Buckle, Civiliz. (1869), III. v. 420. An occult principle, which he termed the Animal Power or Energy of the brain.
1887. Lowell, Democr., 36. Institutions which could bear and breed such men as Lincoln and Emerson had surely some energy for good.
6. Physics. The power of ‘doing work’ possessed at any instant by a body or system of bodies. First used by Young (with reference to sense 4) to denote what is now called actual, kinetic, or motive energy, i.e., the power of doing work possessed by a moving body by virtue of its motion. (Young expressed the quantity of ‘energy’ in a particle as the product of the mass into the square of the velocity; it is now found more convenient to express it as the half of this product.) Now extended (first by Rankine) to include potential, static, or latent energy, or energy of position, i.e., the power of doing work possessed by a body in virtue of the stresses which result from its position relatively to other bodies. Also with adjs., mechanical, molecular, chemical, electrical energy, etc.
Conservation of energy: the doctrine that the quantity of energy in any system of bodies cannot be increased or diminished by any mutual action of those bodies, and that the total energy in the universe is a constant quantity.
1807. T. Young, Nat. Philos., viii. (1845), I. 59. The term energy may be applied, with great propriety, to the product of the mass or weight of a body, into the square of the number expressing its velocity.
1852. Thomson, in Philos. Mag., 304 (title), Dissipation of Mechanical Energy.
1853. W. Rankine, Transform. Energy, in Scient. Papers (1881), 203. [Defines ‘actual or sensible energy,’ ‘potential or latent energy,’ ‘conservation of energy’].
1863. Tyndall, Heat, i. § 9. Asserting that mechanical energy may be converted into heat.
1876. M. Foster, Physiol., II. v. (1879), 420. The animal body is a machine for converting potential into actual energy.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 199. But, whether this is the sole source of volcanic energy or not, is uncertain.
1879. Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. § 278. In every case in which energy is lost by resistance, heat is generated.
† b. Suggested as a name for MOMENTUM.
1808. Edin. Rev., XII. 130. This modification of power [that of a moving body, ‘proportional to the quantity of matter multiplied into the velocity’] might be called Energy.
c. Veget. Phys. Energy of growth: see quot.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 821. If the power of any particular zone to attain a definite length is called its Energy of Growth.
