v. [ad. med.L. quantificāre (Du Cange), f. quant-us how great: see QUANTITY and -FY.]
1. Logic. To make explicit the extent to which a term is referred to in a proposition, by prefixing all or some or an equivalent word to the term.
c. 1840. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, App. (1866), II. 261. Ordinary language quantifies the Predicate so often as this determination becomes of the smallest import. Ibid., 272. Let us … overtly quantify the subject … and say, All men are animals.
1864. Bowen, Logic, v. 127. They further maintain, that the Predicate is never quantified particularly in a Negative Judgment.
1887. [see INDEFINITE a. 4].
2. To determine the quantity of, to measure.
1878. Lockyer, Stargazing, 152. The magnification … of space, which enables minute portions of it to be most accurately quantified.
1882. Piazzi Smith, in Nature, XXVI. 551. A meteorological spectroscope … may also … be able to quantify the proportions of such aërial supply of water-gas.
Hence Quantifying ppl. a.
1847. Sir W. Hamilton, Lett. to A. de Morgan, 43. Logicians … have referred the quantifying predesignations plurimi, and the like, to the most opposite heads.
