System

Also 7–8 systeme, 8 sistem(e. [ad. late L. systēma musical interval, in med. or mod.L., the universe, body of the articles of faith, a. Gr. σύστημα organized whole, government, constitution, a body of men or animals, musical interval, union of several meters into a whole, f. σύν SYN- + στα-, root of ἱστάναι to set up (see STAND v.). Cf. F. système (1664, ‘le systeme de l’ame,’ in Hatz.-Darm.), It., Sp. sistema, Pg. systema, G. system, etc.]

  I.  An organized or connected group of objects.

  1.  A set or assemblage of things connected, associated, or interdependent, so as to form a complex unity; a whole composed of parts in orderly arrangement according to some scheme or plan; rarely applied to a simple or small assemblage of things (nearly = ‘group’ or ‘set’).

a. 1638.  Mede, Apostasy Latter Times (1641), 64. Mans life is a systeme of divers ages…. The yeare is a system of foure seasons.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxii. 115. By Systemes; I understand any numbers of men joyned in one Interest, or one Businesse.

a. 1676.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. (1677), 15. The Universe, as it comprehends the Systeme, Order and Excellencies of all created Beings.

1729.  Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 31. The body is a system or constitution: so is a tree: so is every machine.

1775.  Bryant, Mythol., II. 469. The exit from the Ark; when the whole of the animal system issued to light.

1788.  Priestley, Lect. Hist., III. xiv. 111. The Greeks distributed their years into systems of four, calling them Olympiads.

1802.  Paley, Nat. Theol., xxv. (1819), 398. The universe itself is a system; each part either depending upon other parts, or being connected with other parts by some common law of motion.

1829.  Chapters Phys. Sci., 391. The ancients divided the starry sphere into … constellations, or systems of stars.

  b.  spec. (with this, a possessive, or the like): The whole scheme of created things, the universe.

1619.  Selden, Upon Drayton’s Bar. Wars, D.’s Poems A iv b. Thy Martiall Pyrrhique, and thy Epique straine Digesting Warres with heart-vniting Loues; The two first Authors of what is compos’d In this round Systeme All.

1769.  E. Bancroft, Guiana, 2. The blessings of Nature, have in no part of our habitable system, been dispensed with a more liberal hand.

1816.  G. Field, in Pamphleteer (1817), IX. 101 (title), Τριτογενεα; or, a Brief Outline of the Universal System.

  2.  Physics. A group of bodies moving about one another in space under some particular dynamical law, as the law of gravitation; spec. in Astron. a group of heavenly bodies connected by their mutual attractive forces and moving in orbits about a center or central body, as the solar system (the sun with its attendant planets, etc.), the system of a planet (the planet with its attendant satellites).

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., IV. iii. § 24. If we … confine our Thoughts to this little Canton, I mean this System of our Sun.

a. 1704–1842.  [see SOLAR a. 7].

1715.  trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. I. ix. 117. Of the Motion of a System of Bodies revolving about another Body; all which is applied to the System of the Sun, and the Primary and Secondary Planets.

1732.  Pope, Ess. Man, I. 25. Observe how system into system runs, What other planets circle other suns.

1816.  [see PLANETARY a. 1].

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., Concl. 122. Star and system rolling past.

1870.  Proctor, Other Worlds, xii. 274. First satellite-systems, then planetary systems, then star-systems, then systems of star-systems.

1878.  Stewart & Tait, Unseen Univ., iii. § 103. 114. Taking as our ‘system of bodies’ the whole physical universe.

1890.  C. A. Young, Elem. Astron., § 362. The range of the system [for Saturn] is enormous. Iapetus [the outermost satellite] has a distance of 2,225,000 miles, with a period of 79 days, nearly as long as that of Mercury.

  3.  a. Biol. A set of organs or parts in an animal body of the same or similar structure, or subserving the same function, as the nervous, muscular, osseous, etc., systems, the digestive, respiratory, reproductive, etc., systems; also, each of the primary groups of tissues in the higher plants.

1740.  Cheyne, Regimen, 168. Accidents that injure the arterial and nervous system.

1838–9.  Kemble, Resid. Georgia (1863), 13. The diseases of the muscular and nervous systems.

1841.  T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 302. The generative system appears, at first, to be absolutely wanting in the larva.

1875.  Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 77. Forms and Systems of Tissues…. We … usually find an Epidermal System, a Fascicular System, and the system of the Fundamental Tissue between them.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 699. Affections of the pigmentary system.

  b.  With the or possessive: The animal body as an organized whole; the organism in relation to its vital processes or functions.

  Occas. extended to include the mind.

[1683.  Tryon, Way to Health, 312. When once the same is wounded, the whole Systeme of Nature is disordered.]

1764.  Goldsm., Trav., 347. Till, over-wrought, the general system feels, Its motions stop.

1805.  Med. Jrnl., XIV. 526. Introducing vaccine virus into the system.

1806.  J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, XII. xxv. Ennui so powerfully predominates over your whole system, mental and bodily, that [etc.].

1908.  R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, xxiii. 300. It is extraordinary how long it takes to get those malarial fevers out of the system.

  4.  In various scientific and technical uses: A group, set, or aggregate of things, natural or artificial, forming a connected or complex whole. a. of natural objects or phenomena, as geological formations, mountains, rivers, winds, forces, etc.; also of lines, points, etc., in geometry.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 125. We may select the great carboniferous series … as the oldest system of rocks of which the organic remains furnish any decisive evidence as to climate.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, xxviii. 237. If we place a sphere of glass in a glass trough of hot oil, and observe the system of rings, while the heat is passing to the centre of the sphere.

1840.  Lardner, Geom., 261. Any system of conjugate diameters of an ellipse.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. vi. 43. We had a good view of the glacier system of the region.

1885.  Geikie, Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 2), VI. Introd. 631. We speak of the Chalk or Cretaceous system, and embrace, under that term, formations which may contain no chalk.

1893.  H. N. Dickson, Meteorol., i § 12. Winds arranged in a rotating system. Ibid., iii. § 45. Low pressure system or cyclone.

1912.  T. G. Bonney, Work of Rain & Rivers, iv. 95, chap title, The History of a River System.

  b.  of artificial objects or appliances arranged or organized for some special purpose, as pulleys or other pieces of mechanism, columns or other details of architecture, canals, railway lines, telegraphs, etc.

1830.  Herschel, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), IV. 804. Joint vibrations of a plate and string as a system.

1851.  Ruskin, Stones Venice (1874), I. viii. 88. Magnificent buildings have been composed of systems of small but perfect shafts.

1855.  Bain, Senses & Int., I. ii. § 8 (1864), 31. A system of telegraph wires.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. ix. 318. The system of beacons, which has been traced out over a long range of the hill-tops.

1892.  Daily News, 1 Nov., 6/6. The principal members of the staff are residents upon the company’s system and daily travellers upon the line.

  5.  Mus. a. In ancient Greek music, A compound interval, i.e., one consisting of several degrees (opp. to DIASTEM); also, a scale or series of notes extending through such an interval, and serving as the basis of musical composition.

1656.  Blount, Glossogr., Systeme,… the compasse of a song, or (by a metaphor) or any other thing.

1672.  T. Salmon, Ess. Adv. Musick, 58. The entire Systeme of an Octave.

1694.  Holder, Treat. Harmony, vi. 110. Diastem signifies an Interval…; System, a Conjunction … of Intervals. Ibid., 111. Thus a Tone was a Diastem, and Diatessaron was a System, compounded of Degrees…. And the Scale of Notes which they used, was their Greatest, or Perfect System.

1721.  A. Malcolm, Treat. Mus., 333. That we may know where each Part lies in the Scale or general System,… which is the true Design and Office of the Clefs. Ibid., 335. By this constant and invariable Relation of the Clefs, we learn easily how to compare the particular Systems of several Parts, and know how they communicate in the Scale.

1776.  Burney, Hist. Mus., I. i. 12.

1898.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 207/2. After the time of Ion, the original Greek scale received only one more string, the eleventh…. In this … form, it became the ‘lesser perfect system’ of the Greeks. Ibid., 208. The Greater Perfect System.

  b.  Applied to a stave (obs.), or to a set of staves connected by a brace in a score of concerted music.

1672.  T. Salmon, Ess. Adv. Musick, 63. A Mean and Treble, which may be … placed upon a Systeme of four or five lines.

1889.  Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 45/2. System, the collection of staves necessary for the complete score of a piece.

  6.  Gr. Pros. A group of connected verses or periods, esp. in anapæstic meters.

1850.  Mure, Lit. Greece, III. 54. A System is a … section of the text of a metrical composition, the numbers of which … are too extensive to admit of their being comprised in a single verse.

1861.  Paley, Æschylus (ed. 2), Agam., 40, note. The chorus of old men … enter the orchestra … and … sing the following system of anapaests.

  † 7.  A pad formerly worn by women to raise up the hair: see TOQUE 1 b, quot. 1817. Obs.

  II.  A set of principles, etc.; a scheme, method.

  8.  The set of correlated principles, ideas, or statements belonging to some department of knowledge or belief; a department of knowledge or belief considered as an organized whole; a connected and regularly arranged scheme of the whole of some subject; a comprehensive body of doctrines, conclusions, speculations, or theses.

a. 1656.  Hales, Serm. 2 Pet. iii. 16, Gold. Rem. (1673), 11. Their acquaintance with some Notitia, or Systeme of some technical divine.

1678.  Cudworth (title), The True Intellectual System of the Universe.

1699.  T. Baker, Refl. Learn., i. 4. The moderns … more pleas’d with their own inventions, than with the dry Systems of the Old Philosophers. Ibid., vi. 63. The last Systeme of Logic that I have met with.

1758.  C. Fleming (title), A Survey of the Search after Souls,… wherein The principal Arguments for and against the Materiality are collected: And the Distinction between the mechanical and moral System stated.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxvii. III. 59. The humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make a singular breach in his theological system.

1833.  Tennyson, Two Voices, 207. A dust of systems and of creeds.

1845.  J. Martineau, Ess. (1891), III. 341. Morality is not a system of truths, but a system of rules. In other words, it is not a science, but an art.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., Prol. 17. Our little systems have their day.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 421. In the Hegelian system ideas supersede persons.

  b.  spec. in Astron. A theory or hypothesis of the arrangement and relations of the heavenly bodies, by which their observed movements and phenomena are or have been explained.

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., Pref. A iv. The Word Intellectual, being added, to distinguish it from the other, Vulgarly so called, Systems of the World, (that is the Visible and Corporeal World) the Ptolemaick, Tychonick, and Copernican.

1696.  Phillips (ed. 5), System.… Among Astronomers it is taken for the general Constitution, Fabrick and Harmony of the Universe, or any orderly Representation thereof, according to some noted Hypothesis.

1715.  trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 186. To describe the Tychonic System of the World.

1855.  Brewster, Newton, II. xxiv. 358. The Copernican system is not more demonstrably true than the system of theological truth contained in the Bible.

1870.  [see TYCHONIC].

  † c.  In weakened sense: A theory or hypothesis; also, theory (as opposed to practice). colloq. Obs.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., System and Hypothesis have the same Signification; unless perhaps, Hypothesis be a more particular System; and System a more general Hypothesis.

1748.  Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 27 Sept. Read and hear … ingenious systems, nice questions, subtily agitated. Ibid. (1750), 6 Aug. In the course of the world there is the same difference, in every thing between system and practice.

1756.  Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Cl.), 213. A book upon naturall philosiphy, which is much esteemed; it is overturning all the sistem of every thing being produced by generation, and nothing by corruption.

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ., Mystery. I could form no system to explain the phænomenon.

  † d.  transf. A work or writing containing a comprehensive and regularly arranged exposition of some subject; a systematic treatise. Obs. exc. in titles of books.

1658.  Phillips, System,… a Treatise or body of any Art or Science.

1661.  J. Fell, Hammond, 6. He presently bought a Systeme of Divinity, with design to apply himself straightway to that study.

1695.  in Fasti Aberd. (1854), 373. A printed course or systeme of philosophie.

1722.  A. Nisbet (title), A System of Heraldry, Speculative and Practical.

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, III. iii. Astronomers (who have written large systems).

1727.  De Foe (title), A System of Magick; or, a History of the Black Art.

1772.  Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), I. p. xxxii. It will be … advisable, that he give his lectures from a short text or system, written,… that they may have an opportunity of perusing it.

1896.  Allbutt (title), A System of Medicine.

  9.  An organized scheme or plan of action, esp. one of a complex or comprehensive kind; an orderly or regular method of procedure. Now usually with defining word or phrase.

1663.  Heath, Flagellum (1672), 17. That there might no vice be wanting to make his Life a systeme of Iniquity.

1734.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 251. The generous system, that his Ma^ty has always pursued.

1746.  Francis, trans. Hor., Epist., I. vi. 99. Farewel, and if a better System’s thine, Impart it frankly.

1769.  Junius Lett., viii. (1788), 63. What system of government is this?

1781.  Cowper, Expost., 91. He found … Their piety a system of deceit.

1790.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1895), V. 228. The conduct of Spain has proved that the occlusion of the Mississippi is system with her.

1842.  Tennyson, Audley Court, 33. We … discuss’d the farm, The four-field system, and the price of grain.

1873.  Morley, Struggle Nat. Educ., 55. Subsidising the denominational system.

1882.  Nature, 9 Feb., 351/1. The system of dredging introduced … on the rivers of France.

1896.  Badminton Mag., Dec., 708. Straight bets over single events are losing their popularity in favour of ‘systems.’ A system is a kind of patent safety insurance policy.

  b.  A formal, definite, or established scheme or method (of classification, notation, or the like).

1753.  [see LINNÆAN].

1760.  [see SEXUAL 2 d].

1797.  [see METRICAL a.² 1].

1831.  [see NOTATION 5 c].

1849.  Balfour, Man. Bot., § 719. A natural system endeavours to bring together plants which are allied in all essential points of structure.

1860.  [see MORSE sb.³].

1864.  [see METRIC a.²].

1866.  Watts, Dict. Chem., IV. 136. The system of chemical notation now in use.

1867.  [see NUMERATION 1 b].

1893.  Times, 26 July, 12/1. The T. A. system of signalling invented by Admiral Tryon.

  c.  Cryst. Each of the six different general methods in which different minerals crystallize, constituting the six classes of crystalline forms.

1820.  Edinb. Philos. Jrnl., III. 173. We call every simple form, from which other simple forms are derived, a fundamental form; and the class of figures derived from that fundamental form, a system of crystallisations.

1863.  Fownes’ Chem. (ed. 9), 259–262. All crystalline forms may … be arranged in six classes or systems:… 1. The regular system…. 2. The square prismatic system…. 3. The right prismatic system…. 4 The oblique prismatic system…. 5. The doubly-oblique prismatic system…. 6. The rhombohedral system.

1868.  Dana, Min. (ed. 5), Introd. p. xxi. The systems of crystallization are as follows: 1. Having the axes equal. The Isometric system. 2. Having only the lateral axes equal The Tetragonal and Hexagonal. 3. Having the axes unequal. The Orthorhombic, Monoclinic, and Triclinic.

  10.  In the abstract (without a or pl.): Orderly arrangement or method; systematic form or order.

1699.  T. Baker, Refl. Learn., vi. 68. Aristotle is more noted for his order, in bringing Morality into Systeme,… and distinguishing vertues into their several kinds, which had not been handled Systematically before, than for any real improvement he made in this sort of knowledge.

1746.  W. Horsley, Fool (1748), II. 47. It [sc. government] consists of too many detach’d Parts to be easily reduced into System.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 426. There is more of system in the Phaedo than appears at first sight.

1876.  Trevelyan, Macaulay, II. xv. 474. Macaulay, even during his hours of leisure, began to read on system.

  III.  11. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. Of or pertaining to, or involving a system, systematic, as system-name; belonging to or affecting a system of bodily organs (esp. the nervous system: cf. SYSTEMIC 1 b), as system degeneration, disease, tract. b. objective, chiefly in sense 8 or 9 (often with unfavorable implication), as system-builder, -building, -destroyer, -maker, -making, -monger, -writer.

1776.  Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, VII. 313, note. Tristram Shandy tells us, that his father was a most excellent *system-builder, was sure to make his Theory look well.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. IV. iv. This is the Sieyes who shall be System-builder, Constitution-builder General; and build Constitutions … which shall all unfortunately fall before he get the scaffolding away.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 99. The degeneration of the posterior columns of the spinal cord is a *system degeneration.

1905.  J. Brierley, Eternal Relig., vi. 48. The system-maker is by an equal necessity the *system-destroyer.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 494. The chief indication of a *system disease of the neuron is its intrinsic nervous origin.

1717.  Prior, Alma, III. 330. We *System-makers can sustain The Thesis, which, You grant, was plain. Ibid. (a. 1721), Cromwell & his Porter, Wks. 1907, II. 267. Your System-Makers and World-wrights.

1749.  Hartley, Observ. Man, I. Pref. p. vi. I think,… that I cannot be called a System-maker, since I did not first form a System, and then suit the Facts to it.

1826.  [see METHODIST 2 b].

1836.  H. Rogers, J. Howe, ii. (1863), 21. Where Scripture speaks, or seems to speak, in consonance with the opinions of the system-maker, well and good.

1884.  Century Mag., XXVII. 915. There were many independent centers of movement and *system-making.

1750.  Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 6 Aug. A *system-monger, who, without knowing any thing of the world by experience, has formed a system of it in his dusty cell.

1836.  H. Rogers, J. Howe, iii. (1863), 45. There would be no lack of system-mongers and theorists.

1896.  Badminton Mag., Dec., 711. The system-monger is apt to derive encouragement from the fact that long runs on a colour are rare, the longest known at Monte Carlo being a series of 28 reds.

1888.  Clodd, Story Creation, iv. 32. The stratified rocks are subdivided into the systems shown on fig. 4 … No uniform principle has governed the choice of the *system-names.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 79. I have seen sclerosis so situated in *system tracts, as to be mistaken for a tract-degeneration.

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac., III. Misc. III. ii. 187. A formal and profess’d Philosopber, a *System-Writer.