a. and sb. [ad. L. architectonic-us, a. Gr. ἀρχιτεκτονικός, f. ἀρχιτέκτων: see ARCHITECT and -IC. Cf. F. architectonique (14th c. in Littré)]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to architecture; suited or serviceable for the construction of buildings.
1645. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 219. Incrusted with marbles and other architectonic ornaments.
1774. G. White, Selborne, xx. (1843), 235. With what different degrees of architectonic skill Providence has endowed birds.
1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, § 17. There are musical and architectonic, but no plastic instincts.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 188. To harmonize with the architectonic requirements.
2. Of or pertaining to construction; constructive.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. xxiii. 406. The Demiurgus, or Architectonick Framer of the whole world.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. xxi. II. 191. The architectonic functions ascribed by Wolf to Peisistratus … in reference to the Homeric poems.
3. Having the function of superintendence and control, i.e., having the relation that an architect bears to the artificers employed on the building; directive, controlling. (So used in Gr. by Aristotle.)
1678. Hist. Indulg., in G. Hickes, Spir. Popery, 74. Architectonick and Magisterial Power of making Laws.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, iii. 82. Aristotle so regarded one of their most important aphorisms on architectonic supremacy of justice.
4. esp. in Metaph. Pertaining to the systematization of knowledge.
1801. W. Taylor, in Month. Mag., XII. 422. These days of architectonic metaphysicians.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc., III. XV. viii. § 1. 227. Classification is the architectonic science, to which Crystallography and the Doctrine of External Characters are subordinate.
1877. E. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. xvi. 575. The architectonic impulse of reason, which seeks to refer all science to one principle.
B. sb. Architectonic(s [F. l’architectonique]: the science a. of architecture; b. Metaph. of the systematic arrangement of knowledge.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., III. vi. 72. The Invention of Letters, of Musick, of Architectonicks.
1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, § 42. A style of architectonics … which aimed at magnificence.
1838. Sir W. Hamilton, Log., App. (1866), II. 230. That [science] which treats of those conditions of knowledge which lie in the nature, not of thought itself, but of that which we think about … has been called … Architectonic, in so far as it treats of the method of building up our observations into system.
