[a. OF. (mod.F.) substitution, or ad. late L. substitūtio, -ōnem, n. of action f. substituĕre to SUBSTITUTE. Cf. OF. sustitucion, Pr. sustitucio, It. so-, sustituzione, Sp. su(b)stitucion, Pg. substituição.]
† 1. The appointment of a deputy (or successor); deputation, delegation. By substitution, by proxy.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 178. Maximin … whanne he made a governour Be weie of substitucion Of Province or of region, He wolde ferst enquere his name.
c. 1450. Capgrave, Life St. Gilbert, xii. Be-side þe myracle do in substitucion of his successour, þer fell many oþir grete … whech wer cured.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 103. He did beleeue He was indeed the Duke, out o’ th’ Substitution.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 19, ¶ 11. Whoever is engaged in multiplicity of business, must transact some by substitution.
† b. A writ appointing a deputy official. Obs.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 41. Sheriffs and stewarts-depute have a power to name a substitute or substitutes … within such a particular district as shall be mentioned in the substitution.
2. The putting of one person or thing in place of another. Const. for, † to.
1612. Selden, Illustr. Drayton’s Poly-olb., viii. 129. S. Peters own command, to make substitution of Arch-bishops or Patriarches to Arch-Flamins, and Bishops to Flamins.
a. 1626. Meverell, in Baconiana Physiol. (1679), 117. Every part so separated, may easily be reduced into perfect Metal without Substitution of that, or those principles which Chymists imagin to be wanting.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 50. I shall explain his Subordination and Substitution to Christ in this Part of his Mediation.
1756. Burke, Subl. & Beaut., Wks. 1842, I. 73. Descriptive poetry operates chiefly by substitution; by the means of sounds, which by custom have the effect of realities.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., v. 76. A mere substitution of words for reasons.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 265. A substitution of a new use, in the place of a former one.
1818. Bentham, Ch. Eng., Pref. p. li. The substitution of the perfectly innoxious … ceremony, to the unfaithful imitation of a scene in private life.
1876. Jrnl. R. Geogr. Soc., XLVI. 42. The substitution of a yellow-stained belt for a plain uncoloured one.
b. With reference to the principle in religious sacrifices of replacing one kind of victim by another or a bloody by an unbloody offering; esp. in Christian Theol. used to designate a doctrine of the Atonement according to which Jesus Christ suffered punishment vicariously for man.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., ii. 71. What else but substitution can be understood by the innocent suffering for the guilty?
1856. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 235. Both Tauler and Luther believe in substitution. The substitution of Luther is external…. The substitution of Tauler is internal.
1873. Mozley, Univ. Serm., viii. (1876), 173. This … is the principle upon which the sacrifice of love acts, as distinguished from the sacrifice of mere substitution.
3. Law. a. The designation of a person or series of persons to succeed as heir or heirs on the failure of a person or persons previously named.
1590. Swinburne, Test., 130. The fifte limitation is in vulgar or common substitutions.
1681. Stair, Inst. Law Scot., II. xxvi. 100. Where there are severall Substitutions of certain Persons, or Lines,… they are Specially called Heirs of Tailzie.
1765–8. Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., III. viii. § 21. Heirs pointed out in marriage-contracts, or in bonds containing clauses of substitution, are more commonly called heirs of provision.
1826. in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874), 78. Notwithstanding the above substitution in favor of Margaret Harriet Stewart in the event of the decease of my wife it is my intention that if the fee of my property should devolve upon the said Caroline Oliphant … thro’ the predecease of my son she shall have the absolute disposal thereof in the same manner as if the substitution to the said Margaret Harriet Stewart had never been insert.
1875. Digby, Real Prop., v. (1876), 235. A thing may be given inter vivos or by will to A, subject to a condition that he should on the happening of a specified event … hand it over to B. In this case a substitution is created in favour of B.
b. (See quot.)
1843–56. Bouvier, Law Dict. (ed. 6), II. 556/1. Substitution.… This takes place in a case where a creditor has a lien on two different parcels of land, and another creditor has a subsequent lien on one only of the parcels, and the prior creditor elects to have his whole demand out of the parcel of land on which the subsequent creditor takes his lien; the latter is entitled, by way of substitution, to have the prior lien assigned to him for his benefit.
† 4. Gram. = SYLLEPSIS. Obs.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Substitution,… the using of one Word for another; or a Mode, State, Manner, Person or Number of a Word for that of another.
5. Alg. a. The method of replacing one algebraic quantity by another of equal value but differently expressed. b. The operation of passing from the primitive arrangement of n letters to any other arrangement of the same letters.
1710. in J. Harris, Lex. Techn., II.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 198/2. A method of approximation, which is frequently used and of great importance, has obtained the name of successive substitution.
1845. De Morgan, in Encycl. Metrop., II. 372/2. We may avoid this by allowing only what we will call lineal substitution.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XIII. 34/2. The method of integration by substitution corresponds to a change of the independent variable.
1892. F. N. Cole, trans. Netto’s Th. Substitutions, 12. If an integral function of the elements x1, x2,… xn, is not symmetric, it will be changed in form, and consequently, if the xλ’s are entirely independent, also in value, by some of the possible interchanges of the xλ’s. The process of effecting such an interchange we shall call a substitution.
6. Mus. (See quot. c. 1833.)
c. 1833. Gwilt, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), V. 777/1. Substitution, Chords of, names given to the two chords of the ninth major and minor.
1838. G. F. Graham, Mus. Comp., 29/1. Passing notes, notes of grace, anticipations, substitutions, altered or chromatic notes, and so on.
7. Chem. The replacement of one or more equivalents of an element or radical by a like number of equivalents of another. Also attrib.
1848. Fownes, Chem. (ed. 2), 529. With ammonia the oil [of Gaultheria procumbens] yields salicylamide, and with fuming nitric acid a substitution product, C16 H7 NO10.
1852. Watts, trans. Gmelin’s Handbk. Chem., VII. 15. Dumas’ Theory of Substitution and of Types.
1854. Jrnl. Chem. Soc., VII. 201. The Substitution-Compounds obtained by the Action of Nitric Acid on Cotton.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., iii. § 8. 213. A number of metallic substitution derivatives of alcohol. Ibid., iv. § 2. 288. Strychnia, when pure, is turned yellow by concentrated nitric acid, and yields a nitrate of a new substitution base, nitrostrychnia.
1898. Wade, Introd. Org. Chem., 91. The replacement of hydrogen by chlorine is termed direct substitution and that of chlorine by hydrogen inverse substitution.
8. Biol. The replacement of one organ or function by another.
1870. Henfrey’s Bot., § 162. The modifications … dependent on the substitution of one organ for another, as in many double flowers where the stamens are replaced by petals.
1878. trans. von Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., XIV. 706. The law of substitution undergoes much limitation, and this alone can be granted, viz., that in the infracortical cerebral regions sensory elements can act for sensory, and motor for motor.
1902. Rep. Brit. Assoc. Sci., 631. The two post-Darwinian principles known as ‘Substitution’ and Isomorphism or ‘Convergence.’ The former may be exemplified by … the case of the Rays and Skates, in which … the tail, free to modify, becomes in one species a lengthy whiplash, in another, a vestigial stump.
9. Philol. A sound-change consisting in the replacement of one vowel or consonant by another.
1876. Douse, Grimm’s Law, 25. Instead of the Differentiating Impulse, he here invokes Reciprocal Compensation as the operative cause of the later substitutions.
10. Trade. The dishonest replacement of one article of commerce by another; the passing off of one manufacturer’s goods for another’s.
1902. Pharmac. Jrnl., 6 Sept., 268/2. Several manufacturing firms which live on substitution. Ibid., 15 Nov., 508/1. Substitution, in essence and in fact, is palming off one article for another; thus in dispensing, by giving an imitation … for a proprietary or specific article.
