a. and sb. Also 6 vnyuocal(le. [f. post-cl. L. ūnivoc-us having one meaning (f. L. ūni- UNI- + vōc-, vōx VOICE sb.) + So It., Sp., Pg. univoco, F. univoque (see UNIVOQUE).]
A. adj. I. † a. Of symptoms, signs, etc.: Indicative of, signifying, or denoting one thing: certain or unmistakable in significance. Chiefly Med. Obs.
1541. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., Q iij b. Fyrste than in procedynge … to the knowlege of the vnyuocal sygnes. Ibid. The sygnes of lepry aswel equyuocalles as vnyuocalles.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Univocal Signs (in Surgery) are certain Accidents or Signs of the Fracture of the Scull,… distinguish’d from others termed Equivocal.
1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 5. No less illustrious, but more univocal Marks of Truth, that God hath been pleased to impress upon his Dispensations.
1783. Pott, Chirurg. Wks., II. 405. Though this be one symptom,… yet it is not an univocal or infallible one.
b. Of terms, etc.: Having only one proper meaning or signification; admitting or capable of a single interpretation or explanation; of which the meaning is unmistakable; unambiguous.
Opposed to EQUIVOCAL a. 2. Now esp. in Logic.
1656. [? J. Sergeant], trans. T. White’s Peripat. Inst., 285. The same name would signifie God and a Creature, in the same signification, and would be univocall.
1661. Morgan, Sph. Gentry, I. vi. 88. The crown and horn are in the sacred scripture univocal expressions of glory and dignity.
1671. Baxter, Holiness, xxviii. 9. It is but Analogically called either Holiness or Morality, and not in a proper or univocal sense.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. iv. § 6. Univocal words are such as signify but one idea, or at least but one sort of thing.
1774. Reid, Aristotle’s Logic, i. § 3. 4. An explication of what is meant by univocal words, what by equivocal.
1843. Mill, Logic, I. ii. § 8. A name is univocal, or applied univocally with respect to all things of which it can be predicated in the same sense.
1865. Grote, Plato, I. xvii. 500. The different significations of the same word: the univocal and the equivocal.
1892. Tablet, 28 May, 848. Declaring in terms which are simply univocal [etc.].
† c. Mus. (See quot.) Obs. rare–0.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., Univocal, the epithet applied by Ptolemy to the octave and its replicates. [Hence in some later Dicts.]
† 2. Uniform, homogeneous; not exhibiting variation or deviation; confined to one kind or nature.
Freq. in the latter half of the 17th c., esp. in the writings of Jeremy Taylor; in some instances it is difficult to determine the precise sense.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 28. A dead or mortified part … may not be called a part but equiuocally, because it hath not an vniuocall forme with the whole.
1647. Jer. Taylor, Lib. Proph., xiii. 201. When the actions and perswasions of a sect … are univocall. Ibid. (1653), Serm. for Year, I. xx. 255. The joyes of religion are not univocal but productive of … præternatural pleasures.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 156. So, from the univocall, simple, and homogeneall immortall minde, should so many properties and inclinations of men badly be fetched.
1727. Warburton, Tracts (1789), 87. But Truth … is of much cooler Contemplation; as paying its Court to the Understanding only, by affording a regular View of its simple univocal Original.
† 3. Of or belonging to, characteristic of, things of the same name or species; esp. in univocal generation, normal or regular generation between male and female members of the same species. Obs.
1638. Jackson, Creed, IX. viii. § 3. He which is as truly the Son of God … must needs be as absolutely eternal as the Deity,… otherwise the generation should be equivocal and imperfect, not univocal.
1660. R. Coke, Justice Vind., 6. Creatures … generated and produced from univocal generation or production, that is, from the coition of male and female of the same species.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 2. 2/1. Generation is Univocal: That is, a Species can be no otherwise naturally formed than by a seminal Production.
1748. Phil. Trans., XLV. 656. Thus do these Principles … never deviate further than is consistent with univocal Generation.
1822. J. Fleming, Philos. Zool., I. 23. They [the ancients] considered organized bodies as proceeding from other organized bodies, by a process which is termed Univocal or Regular Generation.
† b. Of actions, causes, etc. Obs.
a. 1640. J. Ball, Answ. to Can (1642), I. 132. That which is spoken of causes univocall, necessary and proper.
1669. Flavel, Husb. Spiritualized, viii. 76. Grace in it self … cannot be the proper univocal cause of any evil effect.
1697. trans. Burgersdicius’ Logic, I. viii. 27. Action univocal is that by which the action produces an effect of its own species; action æquivocal, or a diverse.
† 4. Made, uttered, etc., with or as if with one voice. Of consent, etc.: Unanimous. Obs.
1615. J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., 242. Hee … is never free of the Company … till hee hath drunke out his Apprentise-hood among the grand Masters; and then with an vnivocall consent, hee may commend his Wares.
a. 1734. North, Lives, III. 114. They bellowed and roared with univocal noise, not only in the city but all over England. Ibid. (a. 1734), Exam., III. vii. § 61 (1740), 548. It was their univocal Declaration, that [etc.].
B. sb. A univocal term or word.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Univocals … are defined by Aristotle to be those things whose Name is common, and the Reason corresponding to the Name … the same.
1788. T. Taylor, Proclus, I. p. ii. If infinite men, horses, and a multitude of other univocals, are produced in an infinite time.
1822–7. Good’s Study Med. (1829), I. 407. Regius, arquatus, aurigo, are not indeed univocals, but very clearly equivalents.
