[a. F. total (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = Sp., Pg. total, It. totale, ad. Schol.L. tōtāl-is (in St. Bernard, 1150), f. L. tōt-us entire: see -AL.]
A. adj. 1. Of, pertaining, or relating to the whole of something. Now rare, exc. in
Total eclipse, an eclipse of the sun or moon in which the whole of the disk is obscured. (Often taken as sense 3.)
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 218. His contricion … shal be vniuersal and total.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., II. (1636), 105. The total Sine, which is the whole Semidiameter, and greatest right Sine.
1627. W. Sclater, Exp. 2 Thess. (1629), 172. There are two kindes or degrees of it [faith]. 1. Totall respecting the whole word of God…. 2. Partiall.
a. 1653. Gouge, Comm. Heb. ii. 9. (1655), 170. He was a totall Saviour. He saveth soul and body.
1671. Milton, Samson, 81. Irrecoverably dark, total Eclipse Without all hope of day.
1683. Phil. Trans., Abr., II. 604. Total Eclipse of the Moon, Feb. 11–21, 1682, observed at Paris and Copenhagen.
1697. trans. Burgersdicius his Logic, I. xv. 51. That Cause is total, which in its Species wholly causes the Whole Caused.
1725. Halley, in Phil. Trans., XXIX. 245. Observations on the … Total Eclipse of the Sun … 22nd of April.
1857. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (ed. 3), I. 362. The eclipse must have been one decidedly total.
2. Constituting or comprising a whole; whole, entire.
c. 1400. Plowm. T., 418. Goodes frendship hem makes, They toteth on hir somme totall.
1474. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 72. Sum totale of bath thir sidis, lix li. xv d.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 7 b. The veray and sewre foundement vpon which my total espayr and hope resteth.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. XCVIII. iii. Thou totall globe and all that thee enjoy.
1610. Donne, Pseudo-Martyr, 201. The whole totall body … of the points of their profession.
1709. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Mrs. Hewet, 12 Nov. This is the sum total of all the news I know.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 174. The flaming deluge … Sweeps total nations from the staggering world.
1810. in Sir W. Napier, Penins. War (1878), II. App. 418. Total number of bayonets … 4924.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Cinnamon & P., vi. Its total revenue does not pay its expenses.
1903. Daily Chron., 25 March, 8/7. The percentage of total rainfall which reaches the river is diminishing, as well as the total rainfall itself.
3. Complete in extent or degree; absolute, utter.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 1. Nothing less … could have produced such a total and prodigious Alteration and Confusion over the whole kingdom.
1769. Def. Locke’s Opin. Pers. Identity, 31. After a total interruption of thought … during sound sleep.
1770. Aberdeen Burgh Rec., in Bulloch, Pynours (1887), 76. To put a total stop to the rolling of all sorts of Casks.
1816. Coleridge, Human Life, 1. If total gloom Swallow up life’s brief flash for aye, we fare As summer-gusts, of sudden birth and doom.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. iv. 127. Notwithstanding all that Scott says about the total failure of his attempts in the art of the pencil,… they proved very useful to him afterwards.
1838–9. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia (1863), 24. A total absence of self-respect.
b. Total abstinence: spec. entire abstinence from the use of alcoholic drinks. So total abstainer; also (rare) total abstinent, total abstention.
1801. E. Darwin, Zoon., IV. 208. I have seen … others who, by a total abstinence from fermented liquors, have entirely freed themselves from this excruciating malady [sc. gout].
1831. J. Tuckerman, Lett. respecting a City Temperance Soc., Boston, Mass., 5. A total abstinence from intoxicating stimulants, except for medicinal purposes.
1856. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. 219. How much easier is total abstinence from scenes of amusement than temperance in money-getting.
1862. Total-abstainers [see ABSTAINER].
1880. Richardson, in Med. Temp. Jrnl., 71. In their allegiance to ‘total abstention.’
1882. Harper’s Mag., LXV. Sept., 633/2. Very few public men, for instance, care to order a bottle of wine at a public table. It is not because they are total abstinents, or even ‘temperance men,’ but because the drinking of wine is condemned by a strong public opinion.
† 4. Summary, concise, brief. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1586. Sidney, Astr. & Stella, xcii. Or do you meane my tender eares to spare, That to my questions you so totall are? When I demaund of Phœnix-Stellas state, You say, forsooth, you left her well of late: O God, thinke you that satisfies my care?
B. sb. (the adj. used absolutely). The aggregate, the whole sum or amount; a whole.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., Cc ij b. The totalle will bee (as here in worke appeareth) 335,016.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 65. To cast vp these particulars into one totall.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., II. xi. 224. Here … is a business in which consists the total of our safety.
1772. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 380. But I must say with as great, as just suspicions of him and his, as with attachment to you, on the total.
1841. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. You can … sum up totals.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xlii. V. 216. The grand total was not less than 110,000 men.
Hence Totalness, totality. rare.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Totalness, the Wholeness, or whole Sum. Hence 1818 in Todd; and in later Dicts.
1860. Yorkville Enquirer (SC), 30 Aug., 2/4. The eclipse at the locality where they were—Cape Chidleigh, on the coast of Labrador—was total. The totalness lasted about three minutes.
1916. Red River Farmer (Madill, OK), 21 Jan., 4/1. And the same kind of eclipse awaits the Socialist party in Marshall county this year. The totalness of it will be astonishing.
