a. [ad. F. synthétique (1652 in Hatz.-Darm.), or mod.L. syntheticus, ad. Gr. συνθετικός, f. συνθετός, ppl. adj. of συντιθέναι (see SYNTHEME). Cf. It. sintetico, etc., G. synthetisch.] (In most senses opposed to ANALYTIC.)
1. Logic, Philos., etc. Proceeding from causes or general principles to consequences or particular instances; deductive: cf. SYNTHESIS 1.
1697. trans. Burgersdicius’ Logic, II. 135. Synthetic is that which proceeds from the most simple Principles, to those things which are compounded of those Principles. Ibid., 136. The Sciences Theoretical, such as Physicks, Metaphysicks, Mathematicks, &c. are disposed in Synthetick Method.
1798. Hutton, Course Math. (1827), I. 3. Synthesis, or the Synthetic Method, is the searching out truth, by first laying down some simple and easy principles, and then pursuing the consequences flowing from them till we arrive at the conclusion.
1832. A. Johnson, trans. Tenneman’s Man. Hist. Philos., 33. [Philosophy] proceeds (on general topics) either from principles to consequences (the synthetic order); or from consequences to principles (the analytic order).
a. 1862. Buckle, Civiliz. (1864), II. vi. 572. By reasoning from the twofold ideas of action and of sympathy, Hunter constructed the deductive or synthetic part of his pathology.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 184. [He] descends into phenomena by Newton’s synthetic method.
2. Chem. Pertaining to or involving synthesis; of organic compounds, produced by artificial synthesis: see SYNTHESIS 4.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1796. Pearson, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 430. It appears from the synthetic experiments that the grain becomes finer as the proportion of tin is increased.
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 155. A decisive synthetic proof of the nature of this acid.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (1862), i. § 3. 69. Synthetic Production of Organic Compounds.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 491. The chromatin (nuclein) in some manner regulates the synthetic metabolism of the cell.
† 3. Pertaining to grammatical construction. Obs. rare.
[Cf. 1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, III. viii. (Arb.), 168. That it [sc. speech] should cary an orderly and good construction, which they [sc. ‘the first learned artificers of language’] called Synthesis.]
1778. Bp. Lowth, Transl. Isaiah, Prelim. Diss. p. xxi. The Third sort of Parallels [in Hebrew poetry] I call Synthetic or Constructive: where the Parallelism consists only in the similar form of Construction.
4. In the philosophy of Kant, (a) applied to judgments that add to the subject attributes not directly implied in it; (b) pertaining to the synthesis of the manifold.
1819. J. Richardson, Kant’s Logic, Introd. 80. Analytic or synthetic marks. Those are partial conceptions of the actual conception…, these, partial ones of the merely possible whole conception.
1836. J. W. Semple, Kant’s Metaphysic of Ethic, p. lxvii. The synthetic unity of consciousness.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 175/2. All speculative à priori knowledge ultimately rests upon such synthetic or extending judgments; for though the analytical are highly important and requisite for science, still their importance is mainly derived from their being indispensable to a wide and legitimate synthesis, whereby alone a new acquisition in science can be made. Ibid., 177/2. The synthetic activity of the judgment.
1856. Ferrier, Inst. Metaph. (ed. 2), 25, note.
5. Of, pertaining to, consisting in, or involving synthesis, or combination of parts into a whole; constructive.
In quots. a. 1702 and 1798 applied to the logical method properly called analytical (the opposite of sense 1); cf. quot. 1833.
a. 1702. Hooke, Disc. Earthquakes, Posth. Wks. (1705), 330. The methods of attaining this end may be two; either the Analytic or the Synthetick. The first is proceeding from the Causes to the Effects. The second, from the Effects to the Causes.
1773. Horsley, in Phil. Trans., LXIV. 280. Both these theorems are so easily derived from the preceeding analysis of the problem, that it is needless to add the synthetic demonstration.
1798. Edgeworth, Pract. Educ. (1811), I. 146. There are two methods of teaching; one which ascends from particular facts to general principles, the other which descends from the general principles to particular facts; one which builds up, another which takes to pieces; the synthetic and the analytic method.
c. 1817. Fuseli, in Lect. Paint., x. (1848), 523. Analytic or synthetic: from the whole to the parts, or from the parts to the whole.
1833. Sir W. Hamilton, in Edin. Rev., LVII. 236. Some … call this mode of hunting up the essence the Analytic; others again, regarding the genus as the whole, the species and individuals as the parts, style it the Compositive, or Synthetic, or Collective.
1873. Hamerton, Th. about Art, xii. 181. Since painting is … work emphatically synthetic (being the union of many forms and colours and lights and darks into artistic wholes).
1887. G. T. Ladd, Elem. Physiol. Psychol., II. vi. 388. Its [sc. the mind’s] activity in combining the sensations into the more complex presentations of sense…. This combining activity is best called ‘synthetic,’ or constructive.
b. Concerned with or using synthesis.
1864. Hamerton, in Fine Arts Q. Rev., May, 238. The synthetic habit of mind.
1877. Tyndall, in D. News, 2 Oct., 2/4. That vague and general insight … which … was more frequently affirmed by the synthetic poet than by the scientific man.
6. Gram. and Philol. Characterized by combination of simple words or elements into compound or complex words; expressing a complex notion by a single compounded or complex word instead of by a number of distinct words. (Opposed to ANALYTICAL 1 b.)
1835. G. C. Lewis, Ess. Rom. Lang., i. 26. By this change the Latin language of western Europe passed from the synthetic to the analytic class.
1845. Proc. Philol. Soc., II. 168. Synthetic forms are not necessarily strictly parallel with the analytic ones of the same import.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, i. (1870), 27. The synthetic character of ancient languages, compared with the analysis which distinguishes their modern representatives.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., vi. 105. The loss of formal grammatical distinction by synthetic means.
7. Biol. Combining in one organism different characters that in the later course of evolution are specialized in different organisms; having a generalized or undifferentiated type of structure.
1859. trans. Agassiz’s Ess. Classification, 178. Sauroid Fishes and Ichthyosauri are more distinctly synthetic than prophetic types.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 482. Synthetic or generalised plants, having rhizomata resembling those of some ferns, stems having the structure of Lycopodium [etc.].
8. Math. Applied to ordinary (as distinct from analytical, i.e., algebraic) geometry.
1889. N. F. Dupuis (title), Elementary Synthetic Geometry of the Point, Line and Circle in the Plane.
