relative, n., adj., and adv. : Oxford English Dictionary
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`Page 1 of 18
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`Oxford English Dictionary | The definitive record of the English
`language
`relative, n., adj., and adv.
` /ˈrɛlətɪv/ , U.S.
` /ˈrɛlədɪv/
`Pronunciation:
` Brit.
`Forms: ME relatif, ME relatyf, ME relatyfe, ME relatyff, ME relatyve, ME–16 relatiue, 15 relatiwe
`(Sc.), 15 relatyue, 15– relative.
`Frequency (in current use):
`Etymology: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons:
`French relatif; Latin relativus.
`< Middle French French relatif standing in some relation to (another thing or person) (1267 in Old French),
`(in grammar) referring to an antecedent (1343 or earlier), not absolute (c1377), (in music) related to another
`key by having the same key signature (1737), (as noun) (in grammar) relative word (beginning of the 14th cent.
`or earlier in Anglo-Norman), that which is relative (as opposed to absolute) (1803) and its etymon post-
`classical Latin relativus (in grammar, of a word) demonstrative (4th cent.), relating or referring to an
`antecedent (6th cent.), having a mutual relationship, related to or connected with (6th cent.) < classical Latin
`relāt- , past participial stem of referre REFER v. (compare RELATE v.) + -īvus -IVE suffix. With use as noun
`compare also post-classical Latin relativum (neuter) demonstrative pronoun (4th cent.), relation (5th cent.),
`relative pronoun (6th cent.), relativus (masculine) son (from 11th cent.), relativa (feminine) daughter (from
`11th cent.). Compare Catalan relatiu (1507), Spanish relativo (late 14th or early 15th cent.), Portuguese
`relativo (1536), Italian relativo (a1292). Compare later RELATE v. With the adjective compare slightly earlier
`RELATIVELY adv.
`Compare the following early use of the Latin word (in sense B. 1) in an English context:
`
`OE ÆLFRIC Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 99 Is se ys.. RELATIVVM, þæt ys, edlesendlic, forðan ðe he ne mæg beon æfter rihte gecweden,
`buton þæt andgyt beo ær fore sæd; swa eac on engliscre spræce ne cweð nan man se, buton he ær sum ðingc be ðam men
`spræce.
`
`OE ÆLFRIC Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 113 Gif ic cweðe: tu scis, quod [read quis] hoc fecit þu wast, hwa ðis dyde, þonne byð se quis
`RELATIVVM, þæt ys, edlesendlic.
`
`A. n.
`
`1. Grammar. Originally: a word relating or referring to an
`antecedent, as a demonstrative, personal, or relative pronoun. Now:
`spec. a word which refers to an antecedent and attaches a clause to it
`(e.g. who, which, that); such a clause. Cf. sense B. 1.
`In quot. c1400 fig.
`
`c1400 (▸?a1387) LANGLAND Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. IV. 357 [God] a
`graciouse antecedent. And man ys relatif rect yf he be ryht triwe; He a-cordeþ with crist..In
`case..In numbre.
`a1450 (▸a1397) Prol. Old Test. in Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Cambr. Mm.2.15) (1850) xv. 57 A
`relatif..may be resoluid into his antecedent with a coniunccioun copulatif.
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`c1525 T. LINACRE Rudimenta Grammatices sig. e3, A relatiue is that that maketh report agayne or
`rehersal of a thyng spoken of in the reason before, as Virgilius legitur, et hic est precipue
`audiendus.
`1579 W. FULKE Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 148 He appealeth to the
`grammarian for the nature of a Relatiue.
`1677 R. CARY Palæologia Chronica 235 Jochanan begat Azariah; he it is that Executed the Priests
`Office, &c. This Relative [sc. He] may have reference either to Jochanan, or Azariah.
`a1684 J. EVELYN Diary anno 1658 (1955) III. 207 The government & use of Relatives, Verbs
`Transitive, Substantives.
`1746 T. NUGENT tr. C. Lancelot et al. New Method of learning Greek Tongue II. VII. i. 121 It is by
`Virtue of this Attraction that the Greek Relative agrees frequently in Case with its Antecedent.
`1762 R. LOWTH Short Introd. Eng. Gram. 103 Who, which, what, and the Relative that,..are
`always placed before the Verb.
`1762 R. LOWTH Short Introd. Eng. Gram. 139 There still remains an ambiguity in the Relatives
`they, them, which in number and gender are equally applicable to bodies or hands.
`1804 L. MURRAY Eng. Gram. (ed. 9) II. ix. 128 Relatives are not so useful in language, as
`conjunctions.
`1875 W. D. WHITNEY Life & Growth of Lang. v. 96 The relatives..are an agency we could hardly
`afford to miss.
`1926 C. M. DOKE Phonetics of Zulu Lang. 283 A relative..qualifies a substantive, and is brought
`into concordial agreement therewith by the relative concord.
`1976 Language 52 634 Very few accusative pronouns show up in relatives.
`2006 J. ALGEO Brit. or Amer. Eng.? vi. 149 The initial position is favored except in relative
`clauses, where the initial position of the relative has priority.
`
`2.
`
`a. A thing (or †person) standing in some relation to another. Now
`rare.
`
`a1475 (▸?a1430) LYDGATE tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) 3057 (MED), He that
`haueth pleyn power..And haueth Iurediccyon Above, & domynacion, And ys the right ful
`relatyff, To whom..Thow art soget.
`1576 W. LAMBARDE Perambulation of Kent 408 After the husbande and the wife, there followeth..,
`the childe and his Gardein, whom also (since they be Relatiues, as the other be..) [etc.].
`1606 W. WARNER Continuance Albions Eng. XV. c. 394 Religion and Subiection be each th'others
`Relatiue.
`1655 H. VAUGHAN Silex Scintillans (ed. 2) Pref. sig. B2, Certain Authors have been so irreverendly
`bold, as to dash Scriptures, and the sacred Relatives of God with their impious conceits.
`1660 BP. J. TAYLOR Ductor Dubitantium I. II. ii. 279 The band of marriage is Eternal, but it dies
`with either of the relatives.
`a1716 R. TRAIL Stedfast Adherence Profession of Faith (1718) vi. 97 Faith and God's faithfulness
`are relatives.
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`a1806 J. BARRY in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 93 The mere..opposition of the several
`colours, proper to his object, and to the relatives which accompanied it.
`1862 H. SPENCER First Princ. I. iv. §24. 81 An Absolute which existed not alone but along with
`other Absolutes, would no longer be an absolute but a relative.
`1985 T. B. WIENS in W. L. Parish Chinese Rural Devel. iii. 75 The relative marginal prices of crops
`are the same as the corresponding border price relatives.
`
`b. Logic and Philos. A relative term. See sense B. 5a.
`
`v
`
`1528 TYNDALE Obed. Christen Man To Rdr. f. xviii , What wonderfull dreames have they of their
`predicamentes, vniversales, seconde intencions, quidities hecseities & relatives.
`1588 A. FRAUNCE Lawiers Logike I. xi. f. 48, Relatiues are contraries,..yet there may bee in other
`respects a mutuall consent and reciprocall relation betweene them, wherevpon they bee called
`Relatiues, as father, sonne, husband, wife, &c.
`1649 MILTON Tenure of Kings 31 We know that King and Subject are relatives, and relatives have
`no longer being then in the relation.
`1697 J. SERGEANT Solid Philos. 252 Some Terms which seem Absolute are Relatives.
`1779 LD. MONBODDO Antient Metaphysics I. II. iii. 68 Relation, the nature of which is, that the
`relatives, or things related, necessarily refer to one another.
`a1856 W. HAMILTON Lect. Metaphysics (1859) II. App. 536 Thus relatives are severally
`discriminated; inasmuch as the one is specially what is referred, the other specially what is
`referred to.
`1888 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 9 287 In the case of relative terms the ideal relatives will correlate with
`each other only and not with the things of this world.
`a1914 C. S. PEIRCE Coll. Papers (1931) I. 146 A thorough study of the logic of relatives..shows that
`logical terms are either monads, dyads, or polyads.
`1962 W. KNEALE & M. KNEALE Devel. Logic 429 Possibly the idea of an algebra of relatives was
`suggested by De Morgan's convention of writing 1m as an abbreviation for 1 of an m of.
`1984 Speculum 59 781 Relatives like ‘right’ and ‘left’ refer to a particular quality that something
`possesses in relation to something else.
`
`c. Music. A relative major or minor key. See sense B. 3c.
`
`1786 T. BUSBY Compl. Dict. Music (at cited word), Every major-key is called the relative of such
`minor key, and every minor-key the relative of its third above, taken in the major-mode.
`1847 R. PLATT New, Easy, & Correct Syst. Vocal Music IV. 71 The key of A minor (or rather its
`relative, C major) has no sharp in its signature.
`1860 H. S. SARONI tr. A. B. Marx Theory & Pract. Musical Composition (ed. 6) 81 Let c be the
`principal key. Its relatives are a minor, with the same signature; next, g, with f#, and its
`minor, e.
`1928 Music & Lett. 9 350 With a major tonic we can change the modes of its relatives.
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`1994 R. WINTER & R. MARTIN Beethoven Quartet Compan. 290 The keynotes of ‘relatives’ are
`always a minor third..apart.
`
`3.
`
`a. A person who is related to another or others by blood or marriage;
`a relation.
`blood relative: see the first element.
`
`1650 BP. J. TAYLOR Rule of Holy Living ii. §6 170 The sons and the parents, friends and relatives
`are in the world, like hours and minutes to a day.
`1660 BP. J. TAYLOR Ductor Dubitantium I. II. ii. 315 Cosens would do better not to marry (saies
`another)..that one person may not be a double Relative.
`a1702 J. POMFRET Prospect Death (1703) 4 Our Friends, and Relatives stand weeping by,
`Dissolv'd in Tears to see us dye.
`1793 Minstrel I. 24 St. Julian was..a relative to the duchess of York.
`1825 C. THIRLWALL tr. F. Schleiermacher Crit. Ess. Luke 125 While he is yet speaking his relatives
`are announced to him.
`1860 J. TYNDALL Glaciers of Alps I. xvii. 121 He had received intelligence of the death of a near
`relative.
`1937 J. P. MARQUAND Late George Apley xi. 124 It is hard..to love the whole new group of
`extraneous people who fall your way, simply because they are relatives of your wife.
`1968 Punch 28 Feb. 323/2 His blunt, iron-minded relatives in Yorkshire.
`1998 Community Care 18 June 4/2 Carers fulfil a vital role as they help a relative or friend.
`
`b. A thing or group (such as a species, language, etc.) which is
`related to another by common origin or (more loosely) by similarity
`of structure, properties, or purpose.
`
`1771 J. Z. HOLWELL Interesting Hist. Events: Pt. 3 178 From this doctrine (a relative of the
`Metempsychosis) flowed the first principle of the Manichean system.
`1781 J. CLOWES tr. E. Swedenborg True Christian Relig. II. vii. 68 All Birds know their Relatives,
`not by their Feathers, but by their Notes and Cries.
`1811 J. PINKERTON Petralogy I. VI. i. 550 Serpentine has never been observed to contain any metal
`except iron, and its relatives pyrites and garnet.
`1874 J. G. WOOD Out of Doors 287 The beak of this species [of goat-sucker] is not so powerful as
`in many of its relatives.
`
`1
`
`1887 N.E.D. at Blush v. , The nearest relatives of ME. blusche, blosche, blysche, are app. MLG.
`bloschen, LG. blüsken.
`1908 Daily Graphic 21 Mar. 13/2 Step-ladder sleeves are distant relatives of the Kimono.
`1937 Life 12 Apr. 24/1 Cro-Magnon Man is..certainly a fairly close relative of modern man.
`1967 J. H. STEPHENS Water & Waste iii. 49 The purpose of the service reservoir, and its close
`relative, the water tower, is to allow for the peaks in demand.
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`1974 Country 12 Dec. 1855/3 A Metasequoia, the deciduous redwood relative discovered in China
`in 1941.
`1998 A. DALBY Dict. Langs. 187/1 Ewondo and its relatives are Bantu languages spoken in the
`valleys of western Cameroun, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
`
`†4. A relationship. Obs. rare.
`
`1657 L. GATFORD in E. D. Neill Virginia Carolorum (1886) 278 A practice..abominated of all men
`that know either what men are,..or what their relatives are, either natural, civil, or Christian.
`1675 R. ALLESTREE Art Contentm. V. 97 We attacque him in all his concerns..in his honor, in his
`relatives, nay somtimes in his very essence and being.
`
`5. Chiefly Philos. With the. That which is relative (sense B. 2a).
`Contrasted with ABSOLUTE n. 3a.
`
`1818 G. FIELD in Pamphleteer 12 480 Relation and essence, or the relative and the absolute, are
`the most universal or first categories.
`1856 J. F. FERRIER Inst. Metaphysic (ed. 2) xix. 367 Objects, whatever they may be, are the
`relative in cognition.
`1936 Proc. & Addr. Amer. Philos. Assoc. 10 125 When an individual..fixes his goal, there is
`established within the realm of the relative..a practical absolute.
`1958 W. STARK Sociol. of Knowl. iv. 193 Pareto devalues, and indeed abolishes, the relative in
`reality; but that means..that he operates with a thought-model which is unrealistic.
`1992 Amer. Scholar Autumn 576/2 The great progress of..criticism has been the substitution
`of..the concept of the relative to the concept of the absolute.
`
`B. adj.
`
`1. Grammar. Of a word, clause, etc.: relating or referring to an
`antecedent. Now: spec. referring to an antecedent and attaching a
`clause to it. Freq. in relative pronoun n. at Special uses.
`
`c1450 in D. Thomson Middle Eng. Grammatical Texts (1984) 36 How many of these be othyr
`whyle relatyf and other whyle demonstratyf? Tweyne, videlicet ille and ipse.
`1530 J. PALSGRAVE Lesclarcissement 81 Of the pronownes relatives qui..serveth indifferently for
`all gendres and nombres.
`1552 R. HULOET Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Relatiue or whiche hathe relation to a thynge
`precedyng, relatiuus.
`1631 W. GOUGE Gods Three Arrowes v. §2. 411 This relative particle..They.
`1762 LD. KAMES Elements Crit. II. xviii. 291 In a natural style, relative words are by juxtaposition
`connected with those to which they relate.
`1795 W. VINCENT Greek Verb Analysed 25 This conclusion puts an end to the whole dispute of
`grammarians whether Qui* is an article relative, or a pronoun.
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`1845 J. STODDART Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 66/1 The Greek had only the relative Article
`ὁ, ἡ, τὸ, and was entirely destitute of our positive Article.
`1882 D. B. MONRO Gram. Homeric Dial. xii. 206 (heading) The Relative Adverbs.
`1903 W. G. HALE & C. D. BUCK Latin Gram. IV. 260 The Volitive Subjunctive may be used..in
`Relative Clauses.
`1945 Internat. Jrnl. Amer. Linguistics 11 175 Throwing the verb into the relative construction will
`cause vowel-change in the first syllable of the stem.
`2004 Harvard Stud. Classical Philol. 102 55 The relative sentences that introduce lyric
`narratives.
`
`2.
`
`a. Existing or possessing a specified characteristic only in
`comparison to something else; not absolute or independent.
`
`a1500 tr. A. Chartier Traité de l'Esperance (Rawl.) (1974) 79 (MED), I say not that in thingis
`worldely oon ne may abyde by hope relatif, but neuirthelesse so to abide by determinacion
`substantyve.
`
`v
`
`1547 J. WILKINSON tr. Aristotle Ethiques xlviij. sig. k.i , Delectacion is not mouing, for euery thyng
`that may moue hath tariyng and hastyng. But thynges relatiue haue no mouyng.
`1642 tr. W. Ames Marrow Sacred Divinity viii. 38 These are not properly created, but concreated,
`or annexed, knit to the things created: because they have not an absolute, but only a relative
`entitie or being.
`1665 R. HOOKE Micrographia 15 Congruity,..being a Relative property of a fluid, whereby it may
`be said to be like or unlike to this or that other body.
`1704 J. HARRIS Lexicon Technicum I Specifick Gravity... By some 'tis not improperly called
`Relative Gravity, to distinguish it from Absolute Gravity.
`1707 Blount's Glossographia (new ed.) Time is distinguished into absolute Time and relative
`Time.
`1763 J. BROWN Diss. Poetry & Music v. 75 Melody therefore is to be considered as a relative thing,
`founded in the particular Associations and Habits of each People.
`a1834 S. T. COLERIDGE Lit. Remains (1838) III. 55 Certainty is positive, evidence relative.
`1875 B. JOWETT in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 238 A votary of that famous philosophy in which
`all things are said to be relative.
`1952 S. PLATH Jrnl. 25 July (2000) 121 Reality is relative, depending on what lens you look
`through.
`1984 A. BROOKNER Hotel du Lac (1985) viii. 111 Age is relative... You're as old as you feel.
`2003 R. DAWKINS Devil's Chaplain (2004) II. v. 115 Biologists could, with relative impunity, be
`cutting their teeth on something even more ambitious.
`
`b. Considered in relation or proportion to something else or each
`other; comparative.
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`1611 J. FLORIO Rules Ital. Tongue in Queen Anna's New World of Words 641 The second
`respectiue, relatiue, or limited Preterimperfect tence, which doth euer eyther expressiuely or
`inclusiuely answere or regard the former.
`1673 S'too him Bayes 37 No more does it follow that Geneva..must change from North to South,
`the place of her Relative Situation.
`1750 T. NUGENT tr. C. de Secondat Spirit of Laws II. XXII. ix. 78 Besides the positive plenty and
`scarcity of gold and silver, there is still a relative abundance, and a relative scarcity of one of
`these metals compared to the other.
`1793 J. SMEATON Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §235 They were..so marked, that..they could
`again be restored to the same relative position.
`1822 T. WEBSTER Imison's Elem. Sci. & Art (new ed.) I. 447 Relative motion is the degree and
`direction of the motion of one body, when compared with that of another.
`1860 J. TYNDALL Glaciers of Alps II. xv. 308 The point to be decided is the relative importance of
`his idea.
`1932 E. WAUGH Black Mischief ii. 69 Lady Courteney and Sir Samson discussed the relative
`advantages of tulips and asparagus.
`1945 Wireless World Sept. 270/2 The Naval ‘Plan Position Indicator’ presents..a complete picture
`of the relative positions of all aircraft in the vicinity.
`1998 Noûs 32 28 Their only way of gauging the relative strength of poisons requires seeing how ill
`poison-eaters become.
`
`c. In relation or proportion to; compared to.
`
`1619 W. COWPER Pathmos iv. 63 All these three sights had Saint Iohn, but here hee sees these
`Visions by the second sight. Now this sight is relatiue to the sight hee saw before..and it
`renders this lesson [etc.].
`1660 BP. J. TAYLOR Ductor Dubitantium I. II. ii. 368 If it be a reason that is not relative to times
`and persons.
`1733 POPE Ess. Man I. 60 Whatever wrong we call, May, must be right, as relative to All.
`1768 A. TUCKER Light of Nature Pursued II. II. xxiii. 295 All magnitude is relative to the size of the
`creatures observing it.
`1793 J. SMEATON Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §154 The firmness of all the material parts, as
`relative to the force to be employed.
`1866 J. E. T. ROGERS Hist. Agric. & Prices I. xxiii. 595 The market value will always be relative to
`its demand.
`1877 E. R. CONDER Basis of Faith iv. 141 All knowledge must be relative to mind.
`1920 H. J. LASKI Polit. Thought in Eng. v. 162 Laws, governments, customs are not truths absolute
`and universal, but relative to the time of their origin and the country from which they derive.
`1969 N. CHOMSKY At War with Asia (1971) i. 14 The United States emerged from World War II
`with overwhelming power relative to other industrial societies.
`2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 1 May II. 42/2 How does one judge the value of Ms. Whiteread's
`cast fiberglass and rubber mattress relative to Mr. Hirst's deteriorating shark?
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`3.
`
`a. Of two or more things: having mutual relationship; related,
`connected. Now rare.
`
`a1500 (▸?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 93 Rightes er propre & comoun in dyuers
`degreez..and þe names of right er relatyf [a1500 Ashm. Justice is a novne relatif], or
`aȝeyn~ledynge to some þinges sayd, & amendyng of wronge.
`1594 T. BLUNDEVILLE Exercises I. xvi. f. 19, The relatiue [numbers] are those which haue relation
`one to another.
`1660 BP. J. TAYLOR Ductor Dubitantium I. II. i. 269 Nature and her laws have both the same
`Author, and are relative to each other.
`1662 T. HOBBES Mr Hobbes Considered 21 Protection and Obedience are Relative.
`1728 S. CROXALL tr. Fables of Æsop & Others (ed. 2) xx. 38 The Duties between Parents and their
`Children are relative and reciprocal.
`1797 Encycl. Brit. XII. 187/1 The relative modes are such as the composer interweaves with the
`principal in the flow of the harmony.
`1858 N. HAWTHORNE French & Ital. Note-bks. II. 146 Several different, yet relative designs.
`1917 T. H. ELLIS Nature's Invisible Forces xiii. 213 We are all relative in the sense that we are all
`products of the same universal laws and principles.
`
`b. Of a rank: corresponding in grade to another in a (different)
`military service. Also of two or more ranks: equivalent.
`
`1773 Let. from Captain of Man of War to Member of Parl. 17, I know not how to account for this
`inequality between the two services, otherwise, than that our relative rank was not settled by
`authority at the time.
`1804 W. F. MAVOR Universal Hist., Anc. & Mod. V. v. 141 The military tribunes, who..held a
`relative rank with the generals in the army.
`1866 J. W. GRIMES Let. 14 June in W. Salter Life J. W. Grimes iv. 296 That provision was intended
`for Admiral Farragut, to give him a corresponding rank to that which is contemplated to be
`bestowed upon General Grant. These ranks are relative.
`1886 Colburn's United Service Mag. Dec. 564 A commission in one of the departments of our
`Navy or Army, the holder of which is entitled to honorary or relative Navy or Army rank.
`1928 C. F. S. GAMBLE Story N. Sea Air Station iv. 75 Flight Commander (relative rank of
`Lieutenant, R.N.).
`1943 National Geographic Mag. Dec. 717/2 Coast and Geodetic Survey officers..hold relative rank
`with officers of the Navy from ensign to rear admiral.
`2004 L. M. FENNER in S. J. Bugbee Officer & Lady Introd. p. xiv, Military medical officers
`supported ‘relative rank’ for female nurses in 1920; they could wear ‘officer rank’ but were not
`afforded commensurate pay, privileges, or command responsibilities.
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`c. Music. Of a major (or minor) key: related to a minor (or major)
`key by having the same key signature.
`
`1782 C. BURNEY Gen. Hist. Music II. v. 468 The relative minor keys to a major, and major to a
`minor, are, reciprocally, the 3ds above and 3ds below, which furnish imitations, but not
`answers, to subjects of Fugue.
`1818 T. BUSBY Gram. Music 133 [A transition] from the major scale to its relative minor.
`1847 Musical Times June 104/1 The signature of Do minor is the same as that of Mi♭ major,
`which is therefore called its relative major.
`1937 Bull. Amer. Musicol. Soc. No. 2. 11 A distinctive feature is his use of a relative key for the last
`half of the dances in the same suite.
`1991 J. CALDWELL Oxf. Hist. Eng. Music I. vii. 412 The second part opens with a veritable
`paroxysm of chromatically expressed grief, resolved by a modulation to the relative major.
`
`†d. Corresponding. Obs. rare.
`
`1849 J. RUSKIN Seven Lamps Archit. iii. 71 The square and circle..with their relative solids, the
`cube and sphere.
`
`4.
`
`a. Having application or reference to; relating to.
`
`1563 G. HAY Confut. Abbote of Cosraguels Masse sig. Gii, Our Sauiour..willeth vs to do this in
`remembrance of him, which is relatiue to the whole action before practysed, of taking bread,
`thankes geuing, breaking of it, [etc.].
`1566 in J. Anderson Coll. Mary Queen of Scotl. (1727) I. 48 We have ressauit ȝour lettre..relatine
`[read relatiue] to our last writing sent ȝow.
`
`v
`
`1651 C. LOVE Strange & Wonderful Predict. sig. A , Monsieur Jurieu's predictions, relative to the
`French Revolution.
`1671 R. MCWARD True Non-conformist 378 Say not that the first part of the abovementioned
`rescissory clause, relative to the Act. 1592. Is simple.
`1763 W. HARRIS in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 401 The letter
`relative to Charles's death.
`1765 J. HARRIS Three Treat. ( ed. 2) Notes 362 Things relative to immediate Want, such as the
`grinding of Corn by Mills.
`1800 M. STARKE Lett. from Italy II. 126 Two paintings representing Genii with symbols relative to
`Bacchanlian [sic] feasts and ceremonies.
`1863 H. COX Inst. Eng. Govt. III. v. 658 Powers and duties relative to harbours and navigation.
`1908 L. M. MONTGOMERY Anne of Green Gables vi. 68 She said nothing to him, relative to the
`affair, until they were both out in the yard.
`1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 194/1 He is a general officer and at the head of his department of the War
`Office, which is charged with all duties relative to personnel.
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`2000 S. GILBERT Tattoo Hist. 220 The most comprehensive documentary/retrospective on
`everything relative to the hopped-up internal combustion scene.
`
`b. Having relation to the question or matter in hand; pertinent,
`relevant. Now rare.
`It has been suggested that in quot. 1604 relative has the sense ‘relatable, reportable’: see H. M.
`Hulme Explorations in Shakespeare's Language (1962) 30-33 and American Notes & Queries
`20 (1981) 40-2.
`
`v
`
`1579 G. FENTON tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin Ep. Ded. sig. *iij , So familiar..is the doctrine
`of histories and information of times, that by so much lesse neede I to stande vpon authorities
`of antiquitie, or declarations relatiue.
`1604 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet II. ii. 606 Ile haue grounds More relatiue then this.
`1676 I. MATHER Hist. King Philip's War (1862) 161 There are judicious persons, who upon the
`consideration of some relative circumstances,..have concluded [etc.].
`1738 tr. C. Rollin Anc. Hist. (ed. 2) II. 139 Giving his answers..in such ambiguous..terms, that let
`the event be what it would, they contained a relative meaning.
`1808 R. SOUTHEY Select. from Lett. (1856) II. 157 All relative matter, not absolutely essential to
`the subject, should go in the form of supplementary notes.
`1866 Daily News 12 Feb. 5/6, I would give no credit to such an assumption without some more
`relative and positive proof.
`1956 Numen 3 149 See my relative article in the Act Orientalia.
`
`†c. Of a person: concerned or involved in a thing. Obs. rare .
`
`—1
`
`a1613 T. OVERBURY Wife (1638) 102 She is relative in all; and he without her, but halfe himself.
`
`5.
`
`a. Chiefly Logic and Philos. Of a term, or the concept to which it
`refers: involving or implying relation; dependent for meaning or
`significance on a relationship with another term or concept. Cf.
`ABSOLUTE adj. 2b.
`
`1599 T. BLUNDEVILLE Art of Logike I. xi. 33 Which is said to be relatiue or respective? Those that
`cannot well be well vnderstood of themselues without hauing relation to some other thing, as
`the father and the sonne.
`1625 T. JACKSON Treat. Originall of Vnbeliefe xvii. 138 Whether tearmes formally relatiue alwayes
`multiplie according to the number of their proper correlatiues?
`1640 BP. J. WILKINS Disc. New Planet (1707) vi. 208 The Words Great and Little, are relative
`Terms, and do import a Comparison to something else.
`1678 J. BUNYAN Come, & Welcome 18 To call God by this relative Title [sc. Father] was rare among
`the Saints in Old-Testament times.
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`1789 J. BENTHAM Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. vi. 44 It [sc. weakness] is..a relative term, and
`accordingly imports the absence of such a quantity of strength as makes the share, possessed
`by the person in question, less than that of some person he is compared to.
`1843 J. S. MILL Syst. Logic I. I. ii. §7 A name is relative when, being the name of one thing, its
`signification cannot be explained but by mentioning another.
`1869 B. HARTE Tennessee's Partner in Wks. (1880) II. 135 Tennessee's Partner, whom we never
`knew by any other than this relative title.
`1957 P. GEACH Mental Acts 101 In an ‘extensional’ logic..predicates or relative terms would be
`freely intersubstitutable provided that they held good of the same objects.
`1985 P. AUSTER N.Y. Trilogy (1988) I. xiii. 127 Night and day were no more than relative terms.
`2004 P. M. HOOD Aristotle on Category of Relation iv. 108 Does this semantic interdependence
`diminish the incompleteness or indefiniteness of the relative word?
`
`b. Logic and Philos. Of a proposition: containing a relation or
`comparison.
`
`1704 J. HARRIS Lexicon Technicum I Relative Propositions, are those that include some
`Comparison, add some Relation, thus: Where the Treasure is, there is the Heart.
`1774 T. REID Brief Acct. Aristotle's Logic ii. §2, in Ld. Kames Sketches Hist. Man II. III. 179 The
`moderns..have been led to attend only to relative propositions, which express a relation
`between two subjects.
`1837 S. E. PARKER Logic II. iii. 94 Duncan and Hedge object to conditional, causal, and relative
`propositions being considered as different kinds of compound propositions.
`1892 E. E. C. JONES Introd. Gen, Logic I. ii. 14 Compare E is F—Absolute Proposition—and E is
`equal to F—Relative Proposition.
`1915 Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 15 365 Relative Propositions are of course not confined to cases in
`which there are only two Relata.
`1998 M. P. LYNCH Truth in Context (2001) i. 25 The existence of a true relative proposition entails
`a relative fact.
`
`6.
`
`a. Theol. Of worship, veneration, etc.: offered to or by means of an
`image or icon; indirect. Cf. LATRIA n.
`
`1618 BP. T. MORTON Def. Innocencie Three Ceremonies II. iii. 277 We expected that you would at
`least haue endeuored to proue, in our manner of Kneeling, a Popish kind of relatiue worship.
`1686 tr. J. Chardin Trav. Persia 98 They adore 'em not with a Relative Adoration, but pay their
`Devotion to the Material Substance.
`1756 A. BUTLER Lives Saints I. 346 The allowing to holy pictures and images a relative honour.
`1781 GIBBON Decline & Fall II. xxiii. 374/2 The supreme pontiff..prefers the Greek poets to the
`Hebrew prophets, and palliates, with the skill of a Jesuit, the relative worship of images.
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`1833 G. S. FABER Recapit. Apostasy 14 The Jews and Mohammedans..derived from the Law and
`the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images and all relative worship.
`1884 Catholic Dict. (1885) 239/1 The same idea is expressed by Cyril of Alexandria when he
`speaks of the ‘relative veneration and cultus of honour’.
`1911 Catholic Encycl. XII. 735/2 The inferior and relative nature of the honour due to relics was
`always kept in view.
`1974 J. MEYENDORFF Byzantine Theol. iii. 46 The image, or icon..can be the object only of a
`relative veneration or honor, not of worship which is reserved for God alone.
`2005 K. HART in L. Hill et al. After Blanchot 43 We venerate icons (relative worship) and we adore
`God (absolute worship).
`
`†b. Referring to something else; having further significance. Obs.
`rare .
`
`—1
`
`1710 J. NORRIS Treat. Christian Prudence i. 2 Truths of Importance then are Relative Truths, that
`have an Order or Reference to something farther.
`
`C. adv.
`
`1. With to. In relation or proportion to.
`
`a1794 GIBBON Mem. in Misc. Wks. (1796) I. 127 Naples, the most populous of cities, relative to i