Ultra-

prefix, representing L. ultrā beyond, employed as a prefix in the post-classical ultrāmundānus ultramundane, and the later ultrāmarīnus ultramarine, and ultrāmontānus ultramontane. On these models are formed the types illustrated in senses 1 and 2. The further development represented by sense 3 apparently originated in French with the terms ultra-révolutionnaire and ultra-royaliste, and has become very prolific in English use, as well as in the Romanic languages and in German, Swedish, and Danish.

  1.  Signifying ‘lying spatially beyond or on the other side of’: a. With sbs., as ultraequinoctials (pl.), those who live beyond the equinox.

1551.  Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, I. (1895), 112. For (as there Cronicles testifie) before our arriuall ther they neuer harde any thinge of vs, whome they call the ultraequinoctialles.

  b.  With adjs., as ultra-Gangetic, -Martian, -median, -terrene, -terrestrial, -zodiacal.

  Also ultra-galactic, -stellar, -tropical. (In recent Dicts.).

1833.  Edin. Rev., Oct., 197. The … hypothesis of Olbers respecting the formation of the four ultra-zodiacal planets.

1836.  J. F. Davis, Chinese, I. iii. 81. The usual cautious and exclusive spirit of the ultra-gangetic nations.

1858.  Gladstone, Homer, III. 288. Homer had conceived the existence of what we may call ultra-terrene parts, both westwards and eastwards.

1860.  Olmstead, Mech. Heavens, 271. The Asteroids, or Ultra-Zodiacal Planets.

1902.  Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 115. On the hind wing the ultramedian blue band is replaced by a narrow line.

1905.  Athenæum, 11 March, 312/3. [A rotation] longer than that of any of the great ultra-Martian planets.

  c.  Ultra-red, -violet, applied to the rays lying beyond the two ends of the visible spectrum. (So F. ultra-rouge, -violet.) Also absol.

  The ultra-red rays are also called infra-red.

1870.  Tyndall, Heat (ed. 4), xiii. § 612, 439. The failure … proved the invisible rays to be exclusively ultra-red.

1875.  trans. Vogel’s Chem. Light, vii. 60. We name the invisible tones of colour above violet ultra-violet, and those beyond red ultra-red.

1887.  Encycl. Brit., XXII. 375/2. The remarkable series of ultra-violet lines … in the spectra of some stars. Ibid. A number of lines in the ultra-violet.

  2.  With adjs., signifying ‘going beyond, surpassing, or transcending the limits of’ (the specified concept), as ultra-human, -microscopic, -natural, -pecuniary, etc.

  Also ultra-atomic, -gaseous, -material. (In recent Dicts.)

1818.  Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1836), I. 185. All other super or *ultra-human beings.

1856.  R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 99. The intellectual refinements of an ultra-human spiritualism.

1883.  Jefferies, Story of my Heart, 63. All things being ultra-human and without design.

1870.  Tyndall, Heat (ed. 4), xv. § 754. 521. To make our precipitated particles grow from an infinitesimal and altogether *ultra-microscopic size to masses of sensible magnitude.

1905.  Daily News, 18 May, 8. An optical appliance for making visible ultramicroscopic particles in fluids.

1850.  Grote, Greece, II. lxvii. (1867), VI. 29. The *ultra-natural sublimity of the legendary characters disappears.

1803–12.  Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), V. 138. Suppose the punishment *ultra-pecuniary: suppose man’s life at stake.

1850.  Grote, Greece, II. lxvii. (1862), VI. 70. The word Existence, as they understood it, did not mean phænomenal, but *ultra-phenomenal existence. Ibid. (1865), Plato, I. ii. 97. The real, absolute, ontological, ultra-phenomenal, or Noumenal world.

1883.  J. Parker, Tyne Chylde, 152. Is it possible … to return to the meridian of absolute neutrality as regards *ultraphysical questions?

1894.  B. Kidd, Soc. Evolution, vii. 184. That *ultra-rational system of ethics upon which our civilisation is founded.

1895.  Educational Rev., Sept., 117. Science itself not unfrequently derives motive power from an *ultra-scientific source.

1851.  Mansel, Proleg. Log. (1860), 18. It would not be difficult to show that the *ultra-sensational philosophy is that which could most easily dispense with the necessity of introducing language at all.

1882.  Tyndall, in Longm. Mag., I. 35. There is … boldness … in the attempt to make these *ultra-sensible actions generally intelligible.

1833.  Carlyle, Extr. Jrnl., 28 Oct., in Froude, First Forty Y. (1882), II. xvi. 372. The *ultra-sensual surrounds the sensual and gives it meaning.

  b.  In the sense of ‘exceeding in respect of quantity or number,’ as ultra-centenarianism (of human life), -dimidiate, -total.

1847.  Hamilton, Lett. to De Morgan, 43. If the one extreme coincide with the middle, to the extent of a half (dimidiate quantification); and the other, to the extent of aught more than a half, (ultradimidiate quantification). Ibid., 41. In regard to the ultratotal quantification of the middle term.

1864.  Bowen, Logic, viii. 251. This notation can represent equally total and ultratotal distribution.

1879.  W. J. Thoms, Longevity, p. xxvi. A very large number of cases of alleged ultra-Centenarianism.

  3.  Signifying an excessive or extreme degree of the quality or condition expressed by the adjective forming the second element of the compound, as ultra-affected, -Anglican, -Arctic, -believing, etc.

  First in ultra-fashionable, -revolutionary, but in very common, and steadily increasing, use from about 1830. Only a few of the earlier or more important examples are given here. The distinction from sense 2 is not always quite clear.

1819.  Metropolis, I. 234. The *ultra-affected D-s-y gave us a drop in for a few minutes.

1834.  Sir W. Hamilton, Discuss. (1853), 533. [Bishop Marsh] peculiarly affects an *ultra-Anglican orthodoxy.

1866.  Ch. Times, 27 Jan. The narrow and intolerant spirit of the ultra-Anglican School.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xx. 205. The ability of Europeans or Americans to inure themselves to an *ultra-Arctic climate.

1829.  Southey, Sir T. More, I. 259. The unbelieving clergy are better than the *ultra-believing in this respect.

1836.  J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., vii. (1852), 190. The patrons of this theory are *ultra-benevolent towards the transgressors of law.

1816–30.  Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Extr. Const. Code (1830), II. Repugnant to these same principles is all *ultra-concomitant remuneration.

1868.  Boyd, Lessons Mid. Age, 106. Excellent men, *ultra-conservative in all things.

1870.  Disraeli, Lothair, I. viii. 69. Theodora is … *ultra-cosmopolitan and has invented a new religion.

1838.  Lowell, Lett. (1894), I. 33. I am fast becoming *ultra-democratic.

1861.  G. Musgrave, By-Roads, 323. Owing to ultra-democratic feeling and low radicalism.

1841.  F. E. Paget, Tales Village, Ser. II. x. 197. There is more than one society, which … has already assumed (if I may coin such a word) *ultra-episcopal functions.

1831.  Eclectic Rev., April, 307. A fearless and uncompromising asserter of … *ultra-evangelical doctrines.

1802.  in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., VI. 91. No female, in the dress of the *ultra-fashionable, can be seen in the streets with the smallest regard to decency.

1841.  Thackeray, Ess., Lett., Sk., etc., Men & Coats, Wks. 1900, XIII. 369. A person who sports an ultra-fashionable costume.

1859.  All Year Round, No. 33. 150. Its combination of the *ultra-feudal with the ultra-modern.

1842.  De Quincey, Mod. Greece, Wks. 1890, VII. 351. The Italian, in many features of Gallic insensibility, will be found *ultra-Gallican.

1843.  Mill, Logic, I. iii. § 7. The *ultra-German and ontological character of his philosophy.

1848.  Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 107. What may be called the ultra German style.

1866.  Mrs. H. Wood, St. Martin’s Eve, xxii. (1874), 259. He was given to be *ultra honourable, and to maintain silence in such a case.

1824.  Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xvii. The most frank-hearted and *ultra-liberal lass that had ever lived.

1856.  Geo. Eliot, Ess. (1884), 117. Börne … was a remarkable political writer of the ultra-Liberal party in Germany.

1881.  Times, 3 Jan., 9/4. One of the most notorious consequences of this *ultra-logical mode of conducting affairs is the instability of French Ministries.

1861.  May, Const. Hist. (1863), I. iii. 144. A joint address was agreed upon by both Houses,—*ultra-loyal, according to the fashion of the time.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxvi. Who does not know how *ultra-maternal grandmothers are?

1840.  Earl Aberdeen, in Charteris, Life Jas. Robertson, v. (1863), 112. It will only be approved of by the old *ultra-moderate party.

1843.  Penny Cycl., XXV. 296/2. The followers of the *ultra-modern school.

1830.  Fraser’s Mag., II. 598. His *ultramulish obstinacy in persisting.

a. 1832.  Bentham, Deontol., xii. (1834), I. 171. They spread into divers circles, domestic,… national, *ultra-national, universal.

1877.  Geikie, Christ, lvi. (1879), 676. He would embitter Himself with the ultra-national party.

1876.  C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond., 60. He will see nothing but an *ultra-ornate service of the most decorous kind.

1830.  Pusey, Hist. Enq., II. 327. It is not clear from this extract whether he is immediately speaking of *ultra-orthodox or fanatic opponents.

1844.  Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., Oct., 376/1. The *ultra-Pecksniffian taste displayed in the portico.

1842.  Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxxviii. Several of the *ultra-popish bishops, then resident in Madrid, had denounced the Bible.

1841.  A. P. de Lisle, in E. Purcell, Life (1900), I. vi. 108. The *Ultra Protestant Parsons are quite beside themselves, they rave like maniacs.

1846.  Hook, Ch. Dict. (ed. 5), 853. Some ultra-protestant sects … have irreverently used sitting as the posture of receiving the Lord’s Supper.

1847.  L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B. (1876), 343. Lady Mary herself had an *ultra-prudent sympathy with her husband.

1820.  Shelley, Œd. Tyr., I. 200. Prating there of commerce, public faith, Economy,… And other topics, *ultra-radical.

1845.  Ld. Campbell, Chancellors, xxxviii. (1857), II. 151. There were a few ultra-radical members still not satisfied.

1826.  Southey, Vind. Eccl. Angl., 198. Music and poetry were as much in request … in those days as they are now among the most *ultra-refined circles.

1890.  ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 369. An ultra-refined aristocrat.

1831.  Carlyle, in Froude, First Forty Years (1882), II. viii. 177. They were all prophetical, Toryish, *ultra-religious.

1850.  Grote, Greece, II. lix. (1862), V. 248. His decorous private life and ultra-religious habits.

1793.  Helen M. Williams, Lett. France (1795), II. 13. He had sufficient address to lead them to make some extravagant proposition, which he denominated *ultra-revolutionary, and for which he sent them to the scaffold.

1845.  Encycl. Metrop., XIII. 370/2. Robespierre … accordingly … took an early occasion to associate the ultra-revolutionary party with the foreign enemies of the republic.

1819.  Helen M. Williams, Lett. France, 61. A party, too well known by the denomination of *ultra-royalist.

1821.  Edin. Rev., XXXVI. 139. This ultra-royalist spirit, diffused by the priests and emigrants.

1836.  H. Coleridge, North. Worthies (1852), I. 38. Their intolerant and ultra-royalist principles.

1823.  Bentham, Mem. & Corr., Wks. 1843, X. 536. Then came the servile poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott: and then the *ultra-servile sack guzzler, Southey.

1832.  Coleridge, Table-t., 16 Aug. The discipline at Christ’s Hospital in my time was *ultra-Spartan.

1853.  Miss Yonge, Heir of Redclyffe, vii. Really it is so *ultra-splendid as to deserve notice!

1885.  Spectator, 18 July, 945/2. He does not emulate the *ultra-strict veracity of the Quaker.

1829.  Moore, Mem. (1854), VI. 41. Murray full of *ultra-Tory predictions about Peel; that he is a ruined man [etc.].

1843.  Syd. Smith, Wks. (1850), 633. Let me beg of my dear Ultras not to imagine … that they could form an Ultra-tory Administration.

1851.  G. F. Richardson, Geol. (1855), 438. Groves and forests of the luxuriant vegetation of an *ultra-tropical climate were swept away by floods and inundations.

  b.  In some special terms, as ultra-basic, -brachycephalic, -dolichocephalic, -elliptic.

1893.  Geikie, Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 3), VI. I. 681. Crystalline rocks, which range from amorphous masses … to basic or even what are called *‘ultra-basic’ compounds.

1898.  Nature, 3 Feb., 315/2. He … had arrived at certain very definite views concerning the constant association of the crystalline form of carbon with the ultrabasic rocks.

1886.  J. G. Garson, in Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst., XVI. 14. The … third group on either side is called ultradolichocephalic and *ultrabrachycephalic respectively.

1900.  Deniker, Races of Man, ii. 58, note. Cephalic index of the skull:… from 90 and upwards, ultrabrachycephalic.

1877.  Cayley, Math. Papers, X. 162. Göpel and Rosenbain each connect the theory with that of the *ultra-elliptic functions involving the radical √x [etc.].

  c.  Similarly with advs.

1871.  Miss Mulock, Fair France, i. 9. And what possible harm can it do a man to greet his neighbour civilly, even ultra-politely, rather than grumpily?

1883.  Meredith, Poems & Lyrics, 139. All in honour sill; Oh, all in honour, ultra-honourably!

  4.  With sbs. in the same sense: a. Denoting persons.

  Many of these are adjs. used substantively.

1817.  Mar. Edgeworth, On Bores, Wks. 1833, XVIII. 318. Well-bred persons, abhorring the pedantry of the blues, are usually anti-blues, or *ultra-antis.

1850.  Marsden, Early Purit. (1853), 338. Whitgift … was, in modern language, an *Ultra-Calvinist.

1868.  G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 12. The struggles between *ultra-centralizers and ultra-federalists.

1835.  Gen. P. Thompson, Lett., in Exerc. (1842), IV. 124. Among the names … are many, like Hermes, Nereus,… which modern *ultra-christians would have thought formidably heathenish.

1821.  H. More, in Roberts, Mem. (1835), IV. 179. The *ultra-educationist would despise these limits.

1834.  Mar. Edgeworth, Helen, xxxv. III. 66. One born and bred such *ultra exclusive as Louisa Castlefort.

1829.  T. Hook, Bank to Barnes, 146. The forthcoming novel has long kept the *ultra fashionables on the tiptoe of expectation.

1868.  *Ultra-federalist [see ultra-centralizer].

1929.  in Harriet L. Herring, Welfare Work in Mill Villages, xv. 334. Most of the preachers are of the *ultra-fundamentalist type, and they tend to keep the pot of denominational unrest and bickerings boiling.

1866.  G. Talbot, in E. Purcell, Life A. P. de Lisle (1900), I. xv. 408. The [architectural] designs excited the admiration even of the *Ultra-Goths present.

1818.  Byron, Juan, Ded. xvii. Is it not so, my Tory, *ultra-Julian?

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 208. He is an *ultra-liberal, quotes Cobbett, and goes rather too far.

1860.  W. G. Clark, in Vac. Tour (1864), 6. The ultra-liberals are blind to facts and consequences.

1857.  Pusey, Real Presence, i. (1869), 112. The error of the Sacramentaries was opposed by the error of the *Ultra Lutherans.

1816.  Southey, Ess. (1832), I. 281. The amateurs outrés of horse-racing, or *ultra-men of the turf.

1852.  S. R. Maitland, Eight Ess., 158. ‘Just so,’ replies the *ultra-papist; ‘I believe you.’

1827.  G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 136. The *ultra pietists make a terrible outcry.

1818.  Bentham, Ch. Eng., Catech. Exam., 334. If the number of livings be greater than two,… he may be termed an *Ultra-Pluralist.

1818.  Q. Rev., XVIII. 504. In the opinion of the *ultra-presbyterians.

1835.  Hook, Ch. Dict. (1842), 501. The use of the ring in marriage used to be regarded as a remnant of Popery by *ultra-protestants.

1841.  A. P. de Lisle, in E. Purcell, Life (1900), I. xi. 208. That still more monstrous idea held by ultra-Protestants that the Catholick Church consists of all sects of nominal Christians.

1850.  Marsden, Early Purit. (1853), 49. The *ultra-puritans regarded them as semi-papists.

1834.  Greville, Mem. (1874), III. 54. Lord Wharncliffe … says that the constituency of the great towns is composed of *ultra-Radicals.

1871.  M. Collins, Marq. & Merch., II. iii. 58. You’re an ultra-Radical.

1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. 114. At home, the virulence of the *ultra-reactionaries … recommenced.

1867.  Latham, Black & White, Pref. p. vi. They are the successful men, who have made money, and are not disposed to be *ultra-Republicans in future.

1845.  Encycl. Metrop., XIII. 370/2. The progress of Hebert and the *ultra-revolutionists was still more distasteful to him [Danton] than to Robespierre.

1848.  Blackie, in Class. Mus., V. 72. Dante … said many things in his divine poem … offensive to the *ultra-Romanists.

1818.  Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 276. I dread the machinations of the *ultra royalists and the Bourbon princes.

1845.  Ld. Campbell, Chancellors, xcv. (1857), IV. 302. It was thought fit to balance them by some determined ultra-royalists.

1837.  R. Herd, Scraps of Poetry, 41.

1816.  Southey, Ess. (1832), I. 356. Such was the system of government established in France by the Perfect Emperor of the *Ultra-Whigs and Extra-Reformers.

  b.  Denoting actions, qualities, etc.

1858.  H. Martineau, Hist. Peru, 169. The government was declared to have gone over to *ultra-abolitionism.

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, II. 656. Napier, in his *ultra advocacy of Soult, says [etc.].

1831.  Edin. Rev., LIV. 387. He parades an *ultra-Byronism.

1827.  New Monthly Mag., XIX. 313. The following paper, therefore, does not apply to every Catholic country, but only to those where *Ultra Catholicism yet reigns triumphant under the eye of the Pope or Ferdinand.

1841.  Miall, in Nonconf., I. 73. In connection with Laudism and *ultra-churchism.

1850.  L. Hunt, Autobiog., I. ii. 70. I found myself … cultivating a perplexed *ultra-conscientiousness with my mother.

1828.  P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 16. His *ultra-dandyism of speech, dress, and manner, made his presence a sort of sine qua non in every merry meeting.

1863.  A. Blomfield, Mem. Bp. Blomfield, I. iv. 106. Reporis of his *ultra-discipline … may have reached you.

1856.  R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 279. It is sickening to hear the unctuous talk with which now-a-days *ultra-liberalism will sometimes stretch out a hand to spiritual tyranny.

1857.  Pusey, Real Presence, i. (1860), 122. Amid the conflict of parties, the ‘Formula Concordiæ’ moderated the extremes of *Ultra-Lutheranism.

1847.  L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., II. v. 70. The account is singular and interesting, as a specimen of the highest *ultra-manners of those times.

1877.  C. Geikie, Christ, lvi. (1879), 676. With craft, the *ultra-orthodoxy of the Pharisaic party allied itself with the loyalist faction.

1818.  Bentham, Ch. Eng., 336. In these cases of *Ultra-Pluralism, whereabouts are the eyes of the Archbishop?

1842.  Pusey, Crisis Eng. Ch., 30. Cases in which persons who were going over from *Ultra-Protestantism, have been thankful to be stayed, and found their rest in the true doctrines of our Church.

1858.  Sears, Athan., III. ii. 267. It is only our ultra Protestantism that involves us in these difficulties and absurdities.

1825.  Hazlitt, Spirit of Age, 147. They are a relief to the mind … heated with *ultra-radicalism.

1847.  W. C. L. Martin, Ox, 63/1. There is, perhaps, something of *ultra-refinement in this view of the matter.

1816–30.  Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Extr. Const. Code (1830), 12. Completely needless, and thence unjustifiable, is all such *ultra-remuneration.

1865.  Ch. Times, 28 Oct., 341. The Puritan outcry about the *‘ultra-ritualism’ at St. Michael’s Church.

1815.  Ann. Reg., Gen. Hist., 94. A preponderance of what is called *ultra-royalism, which opposes the moderation of the court.

1871.  Lowell, Pope, Prose Wks. 1890, IV. 18. The *ultra-spiritualism of the Puritans.

1829.  Moore, Mem. (1854), VI. 44. Some of the Handelian part of the selections might be called the *ultra-Toryism of music.