Subject: [seamoby] ACTIVE,PROACTIVE,REACTIVE et al.

From: Theo Pagtzis <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 15:07:11 +0100

For the sake of completeness I provide the terms' etymology from
Oxford English Dictionary as they are :

This is to help people that do not have access to the online service,
appreciate the argument better!

OED Term Definitions:

+++++++++++++++++REACTIVE++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 A. adj.

    1. Repercussive, echoing. Obs.1

  1712 BLACKMORE Creation 357 Ye fish, assume a voice, with praises
fill The hollow rock, and loud reactive hill.

    2. Acting or operative in return.

  1794 G. ADAMS Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxi. 103 Every body that
acts, is at the same instant both active and re~active.
1851 H. SPENCER Soc. Stat. 318 We have to consider, not only what is
done for the afflicted, but what is the reactive effect
upon those who do it.

    3. Path.    a. Supervening on a previous opposite state; due to
reaction. Also reactive formation =
reaction formation s.v. REACTION 5; reactive inhibition, the
inhibiting effect of the supervention of fatigue
or boredom on the response to a stimulus.

  1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 434 The patient..was not
rendered faint by the re-active glow that ensued upon
his quitting the water. 1885-8 PYE-SMITH Fagge's Princ. Med. I. 51
Such patients..sometimes pass into a condition of
reactive pyrexia. 1925 J. STRACHEY tr. Freud's Case of Hysteria in
Coll. Papers III. 67 Repression is often achieved by
means of an excessive reinforcement of the thought contrary to the one
which is to be repressed. This process I call
reactive reinforcement. Ibid. 68 The thought which asserts itself
exaggeratedly in consciousness and (in the same way as
a prejudice) cannot be removed I call a reactive thought. 1943 C. L.
HULL Princ. Behavior xviii. 327 Uniform time intervals
between reinforcements great enough to prevent the accumulation of
appreciable amounts of reactive inhibition. 1968 Globe
& Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 11/6 These young people can join `negative
identity' groups and become..therapeutically involved
in extreme reactive kinds of activity. 1974 CHAPLIN & KRAWIEC Systems
& Theories of Psychol. vii. 263 In and of itself
fatigue will generate a form of inhibition which Hull calls reactive
inhibition, and the animal will cease to respond. 1975 Way
Suppl. No. 25. 67 Dynamic psychology might interpret this as evidence
for reactive formation, which is a technical term
suggesting that we control an unacceptable impulse by exaggerating the
opposite tendency. 1977 G. H. SAGE Introd. Motor
Behav. (ed. 2) xvi. 359 The first of these is an inhibition (reactive
inhibition) caused by a reluctance to repeat a response.

    b. Recuperative; responsive (to a stimulus); characterized by
reaction to a stimulus.

  1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 704 There is no longer any
rallying or reactive power remaining. 1896 Allbutt's Syst.
Med. I. 193 These granules are feebly reactive to light. Ibid. 293
Delicate children, with little reactive power. 1927 C.
SPEARMAN Abilities of Man iv. 47 Stern's division of persons into the
`spontaneous' and the `merely reactive'. 1952 M.
K. WILSON tr. Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring xi. 171 A few birdsusually
old, strongly reactive ones take off, emitting
`Kiaw' cries and thereby provoking the whole flock to leave the ground
with them.

    c. Psychol. Of mental illness: thought to be caused by reaction to
environmental stress; exogenous; so
reactive schizophrenic, a person with reactive schizophrenia (cf.
process schizophrenia s.v. PROCESS n.
13a).

  1924 A. A. BRILL Bleuler's Textbk. Psychiatry xii. 537 Reactive
depressions, which become aggravated to a mental
disease, are quite rare in the light of present views. 1955 MCCARTHY &
CORRIN Med. Treatment of Mental Dis. xix. 326
Reactive depressions are the mild, brief depressions, the result of
situations depressing in themselves, and not out of
proportion to circumstances. 1958 H. WEINER in L. Bellak Schizophrenia
iv. 157 Whether such reactive psychoses actually
imply a different series of etiologic contributing factors, i.e.,
`non-organic', is highly speculative. 1962 Lancet 10 Jan. 105/1
Two were middle-aged men with anxiety states... The third was a
middle-aged lady with a reactive depression. 1962
Psychol. Bull. LIX. 329/1 Reactive schizophrenia indicates a good
prognosis..with notable stress precipitating the
psychosis. Ibid. 332/1 If the Rorschach diagnosis is followed, then it
appears that reactive schizophrenics are not
psychotic. 1965 J. POLLITT Depression & its Treatment 95 The terms
`endogenous' and `reactive'..differentiate types of
depression on the basis of presence or absence of an external cause.
1966 I. B. WEINER Psychodiagnosis in Schizophrenia
vi. 94 A group of process schizophrenics made no more frequent errors
than the reactive schizophrenics. 1971 Brit. Med.
Bull. XXVII. 77/2 One school of thought..allocates such cases to a
special category of `reactive psychoses'. 1974 M. C.
GERALD Pharmacol. xvi. 310 When the cause of depression can be
identified,..we term this reactive or exogenous
depression. 1976 L. J. WEST et al. Treatment of Schizophrenia vi. 278
The good premorbid/bad premorbid, and
process/reactive dimensions do seem to identify significant
characteristics.

    4. Characterized by reaction (sense 4).

  1868 GLADSTONE Juv. Mundi i. (1870) 24 The reactive tendency to
preserve the text by recurrence to a standard. 1890
Harper's Mag. June 77/1 He constantly inclined to reactive measures.

    5. Chem.    a. Readily susceptible to chemical reaction.

  1888 Nature 22 Mar. 503/1 The unsaturated hydrocarbons..are..more
reactive than the paraffins. 1942 G. WENDT Chem.
vii. 179 As in the other families of elements we shall meet, the
lightest of the groupin this case fluorineis the most
reactive. 1957 G. E. HUTCHINSON Treat Limnol. I. xi. 708 It is not
clear, however, in what form this reactive iron is actually
present in the lake water. 1972 R. A. JACKSON Mechanism iv. 78 A
trapping or inhibiting agent may be insufficiently
reactive towards a particular intermediate to divert it from its
normal course of reaction, or the agent may react in such a
way as to regenerate another reactive intermediate.

    b. Of a process: involving chemical reaction.

  1950 Chem. Abstr. XLIV. 8190 (heading) Reactive diffusion in metals.
1960 Ibid. LIV. 23646 The reactive diffusion in a
system Nb-B is accomplished by diffusion of B atoms through the
reaction products toward the metal. 1971 New Scientist
8 Apr. 96/1 Reactive evaporation..is often used for depositing metal
oxides. 1973 R. L. BURWELL in Basolo & Burwell
Catalysis II. 72 Ethylene is adsorbed by reactive adsorption. Perhaps
it first adsorbs as a -complex and then reacts to
monoadsorbed ethane. 1978 FELDER & ROUSSEAU Elem. Princ. Chem.
Processes x. 384 In this chapter we show..how
calculated enthalpies of reaction are incorporated in energy balances
on reactive processes.

    c. Of a dye or other colouring material: designed to react
chemically with the substrate, usu. in order to
become fixed.

  1957 Jrnl. Soc. Dyers & Colourists LXXIII. 238/2 The search for more
practical methods of using reactive dyes has
continued, and this work has now culminated in the production of a new
range of dyesthe Procion (ICI) dyeswhich are
water-soluble but contain a reactive group capable of combining with
cellulose under alkaline conditions. 1973 Materials &
Technol. VI. iv. 310 The direct, basic, sulphur, vat, azoic and
reactive dyes are all suitable for colouring the fibre [sc. rayon].
a1977 Harrison Mayer Ltd. Catal. 39/1 Reactive colours, a new range of
leadless colours for underglaze, on-glaze or
in-glaze decoration... On firing, these colours react with the glaze
to give interesting and variegated effects.

    d. Of coke or coal: having a high reactivity (sense b).

  1963 Economist 21 Dec. 1284/1 Reconciling the clean air policy with
the British love of open fires means trying to produce
enough smokeless fuel of the sort that can be burnt in the fireplaces
of smokeless zones. But the Minister of Power now
estimates that there will be a gap..between the demand for such
`reactive' smokeless fuels and the supply. 1974 Encycl.
Brit. Macropædia IV. 783/2 Coals of medium rank are used for
low-temperature carbonization because they yield reactive
cokes.

    6. a. Electr. Possessing or pertaining to electrical reactance;
spec. applied to the vector component of an
alternating current (or voltage) which is 90° out of phase with
respect to the associated voltage (or current),
i.e. wattless; reactive power, the product of the voltage and the
reactive current, or of the current and the
reactive voltage; reactive volt-ampere, a unit of reactive power.

  1892 J. A. FLEMING Alternate Current Transformer II. ii. 269
Reactive Coil or Dimmer.This is a device used in
alternating current work to serve the same ends as rheostats in direct
current plants. 1892 S. P. THOMPSON
Dynamo-Electr. Machinery (ed. 4) xxii. 628 We have here two
electromotive-forces, the impressed O A and the reactive
A E..with their resultant the effective electromotive-force O E, with
an angle E O A..between them. 1914 J. H.
MORECROFT Continuous & Alternating Current Machinery vi. 205 The
component of voltage 90° out of phase with the
current we shall call the reactive component of the voltage or
reactive voltage. 1916 Standardization Rules Amer. Inst.
Electr. Engineers 15 Reactive volt-amperes, the product of the
reactive component of the voltage by the total current, or of
the reactive component of the current by the total voltage. 1920
Whittaker's Electr. Engineers's Pocket-Bk. (ed. 4) 222
The reactive current changes from leading to lagging as the field
excitation is reduced. 1951 W. SLUCKIN Princ. Alternating
Currents ix. 225 In an induction motor, neglecting heating losses, the
active component provides the useful mechanical
power delivered by the motor, while the reactive component is
associated with the production of the alternating magnetic
field necessary for the operation of the motor. 1956 C. S. SISKIND
Electr. Circuits xi. 265 The vertical componentthe
quadrature componentis EI sin . The latter, acting adversely to lessen
the power factor, is expressed as the reactive
volt-amperes, abbreviated R-va. 1961 Listener 9 Nov. 768/2 There is
also the problem, with direct current lines, of
providing what is called the reactive powerpower where the current is
out of step with the voltagefor the operation of
converter equipment. 1970 J. EARL Tuners & Amplifiers iv. 83 The
source itself can be mostly resistive or mostly reactive.
1978 Gramophone May 1958/1 It is claimed to have an output of 100
watts RMS working into an 8-ohm inductive or
reactive load.

    b. Mech. and Acoustics. Possessing or pertaining to mechanical or
acoustic impedance.

  1934 OLSON & MASSA Applied Acoustics ii. 32 (caption) Resistive and
reactive air load per unit area on one side of a
vibrating piston of radius R centimeters set in an infinite baffle.
1963 [see IMPEDANCE 2]. 1976 A. H. BENADE Fund. of
Musical Acoustics xxi. 457/2 The other register hole on my special
clarinet can be called a reactive register hole, i.e., an
aperture in which the flow depends mainly on the inertia of the air
moving through it.

    7. Gram. (See quot.) rare.

  1957 R. W. ZANDVOORT Handbk. Eng. Gram. V. ii. 224 To express the
speaker's reaction to a previous statement by the
person addressed which is repeated by the speaker (reactive
questions)... You can't catch me.I can't, can't I? said
Philip.

    B. n. Chem. [ad. F. réactif.] A reagent. rare.

  [1790 Monthly Rev. III. 546 Chemical tests, or, as the French call
them, reactives.] 1791 HAMILTON Berthollet's Dyeing
I. I. II. iv. 192 A chemist should be employed for preparing a proper
reactive. 1887 BROWNING Parleyings, C. Avison ix,
Reviewing learnedly the list complete Of chemical reactives.

    Hence reactively adv. So reactiveness (Webster 1847) = next.

  1805 FOSTER Ess. I. ii. 30 The living world..is re-actively throwing
on him various moral influences and infections. 1860 A.
L. WINDSOR Ethica v. 285 A very irritable temper, that bore him
reactively into close relationship with a few.

++++++++++++   PROACTIVE ++++++++++++++++++++++

   Of a person, policy, etc.: that creates or controls a situation by
taking the initiative or by anticipating events
(as opp. to responding to them); also loosely, innovative, tending to
make things happen. (Freq. in
management or business contexts.)

  1971 A. J. R. REISS Police & Public ii. 64 Citizens usually bring
matters to police attention...The police department deals
with such requests as a reactive organization...The police also
acquire information by intervening in the lives of citizens on
their own initiative. In this capacity, they serve as a proactive
organization. 1977 D. M. SMITH Human Geogr. xi. 327 By
comparing conditions before and after the change in the five reactive,
control, and proactive [sc. police] beats, the
effectiveness of this strategy could be judged. 1980 W. SAFIRE in N.Y.
Times Mag. 2 Mar. 9/2 Webster says he has been
forced to choose between `reactive' law enforcementresponding after a
bank has been robbedand `pro-active'
enforcement, in which his men are in on the planning stages of a
crime. 1984 Financial Times 10 Feb. 26 A new kind of
management able to take risks,..manage change, and be more proactive.
1985 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Oct. B20/1
(Advt.), If you are the proactive and innovative individual we are
looking for..we invite you to submit a resume in
confidence.

    Hence proactively adv.; proaction, proactivity, proactive
behaviour or practice. Also [as
back-formation] proact v. intr., to take proactive measures; to act in
advance, to anticipate.

  1978 J. ALDERSON Communal Policing p. i, The education of a
community and a police force in joint pro-activity was seen
as the only way to reduce morbidity of crime levels. 1980 Times 3 Nov.
16/3 We anticipate, we plan, we pro-act rather than
react to change. 1984 N.Y. Times 14 Oct. XI. 30/5 Determinate
sentencing, as an alternative to parole, forces the system to
wait for the smoking gun, rather than proactively intervene before
another terrible tragedy. 1985 R. C. A. WHITE Admin. of
Justice IV. xiv. 256 A distinction which separates the practice of law
in law centres from that in private practice is that
between reactivity and proactivity. 1986 Mag. Bank Admin. June 41/1
Aggressiveness, proaction or other performance
criteria are paramount. 1986 Industry Week 23 June 52/1 This
versatility is allowing us to proact rather than react to
changing market conditions.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ACTIVE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  gen. Characterized by action. Hence

    A. adj.

    1. a. Opposed to contemplative or speculative: Given to outward
action rather than inward contemplation
or speculation; practical; esp. with `life.' (Also formerly absol. in
pl. sc. virtues, faculties.)

  1340 Ayenb. 199 Holy writ ous tek tuo maneres of liue..e verste is
yhote workvol [active] vor et hi is ine zuynch of
guode workes. 1340 HAMPOLE Prose Tr. 24 Vnto thes men itt longith som
tyme to vsene werkis of mercy in actife liffe.
1362 LANGL. P. Pl. A VII. 236 Actyf lyf or contemplatyf · Crist wolde
hit alse. c1400 Apol. for Loll. 23 Also ei tokun actifis
& contemplatifis; at sterun to vertewe be er two maneris. 1401 Pol.
Poems II. 63 There is maad mencion of two perfit
lyves, that actif and contemplatif comounli ben callid, ffulli figurid
by Marie and Martha hir sister. 1538 STARKEY England 4
But wether hyt [i.e. perfection] stond in the actyve lyfe.. or els in
the contemplative..hyt ys not al sure. 1604 SHAKES. Oth.
I. iii. 271 My speculative and active [1623 offic'd] instruments. 1609
TOURNEUR Fun. Poeme 355 All his industries (As
well in actives as contemplatives). 1660 T. STANLEY Hist. Philos.
(1701) 161/1 Philosophy concerns either action or
contemplation (thence assuming two names, Contemplative and Active)
the Active consisting in practice of moral Actions,
the Contemplative, in penetration of abstruse Phisical causes, and the
nature of the Divinity. 1828 D. STEWART Wks. VI.
122 As the operations in the minds of other men escape our notice we
can judge of their activity only from the sensible
effects it produces; thence we are led to apply the character of
activity to those whose bodily activity is the most
remarkable, and to distinguish mankind into two classes, the Active
and the Speculative.

    b. Practical, as opposed to theoretical. Obs.

  1609 DOULAND Orinth. Microl. 2 Active Musicke, which also they call
Practick, is..the knowledge of singing well.

    2. Opposed to passive: Originating or communicating action,
exerting action upon others; acting of its own
accord, spontaneous. In 17th c. often absol. in pl. sc. qualities,
forces.

  c1400 Apol. for Loll. 14 God may not autorise at actyfe cursyng..But
passyue cursyng..is just. 1413 LYDGATE Pylg.
Sowle II. lx. (1859) 57 Quod the body..thou were in me actyf as fire
is in the wood, and I in to the passyf as woode is in the
fyre. 1477 NORTON Ordin. Alch. v. (Ashmole 1652) 54 Heate, and Cold,
be qualities Active, Moisture, and Drines, be
qualityes Passive. 1592 W. WEST Symbolæogr. I. 48G. The actiue person
in Instrumentes is he which maketh the
Instruments. 1677 HALE Prim. Orig. Man. IV. v. 332 If it should be in
the power of an Angel by applying actives to passives
to produce an Insect. 1736 BUTLER Analogy I. v. 117 Perception of
danger is a natural Excitement of passive fear and active
caution. 1846 MILL Logic III. iii. §9 (1868) 292 Objects which they
first believed to be intelligent and active are really
lifeless and passive. 1876 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. II. x. 492 The treasons
of Eadwine were often passive rather than
active.

    3. Grammar.    a. properly, An epithet of Voice in verbs used
transitively; opposed to Passive (and, in some
languages, to Reflexive or Middle). That form of the verb in which the
action asserted by it is viewed as a
characteristic or attribute of the thing whence it issues, as opposed
to the Passive Voice in which the action
is viewed as an attribute of the thing towards which it is directed;
or, that form of the verb in which the
logical subject of the action is made by the speaker the grammatical
subject of his assertion, as shown by the
verb's agreement with it in inflections, by position, or otherwise.
This being (in Aryan Languages) the simple
or original form, verbs used intransitively naturally have no other,
and are said to have the Active Voice only.

    b. Less correctly, said of verbs themselves; in two senses. 1.
Applied to verbs which assert that the
subject acts upon or affects something else, as distinguished from
Passive Verbs, or such as assert of the
subject that it is acted on by something or suffers the action, and
Neuter Verbs which assert an action or
state that has neither character. 2. Applied to all verbs that assert
action as distinct from mere existence or
state; in this sense Active Verbs are divided into Active Transitive,
in which the action passes over to or
affects an object, as kill (corresponding to the Active of 1), and
Active Intransitive, in which the action does
not affect an object, as rise (forming part of the Neuter verbs of 1),
Neuter in this nomenclature being
restricted to verbs of existence or state, as be, sit.
  Both of these uses of the word are etymologically defensible, but
both are inconvenient: the distinction between action
and state is not always clear, and above all is one of things, not of
assertions about them; that of action and passion is
merely that of two ways of viewing and asserting the same action;
while the passing over of an action to an object or the
contrary is better expressed by Transitive and Intransitive, and is
moreover not a division of verbs, but of the
constructions of each verb separately, the great majority of verbs in
Eng. having both constructions.

  1530 PALSGR. 4 The thyrde parsonnes plurelles of verbes actyves in
the frenche tonge..ende in ent. 1591 PERCIVALL
Span. Dict. Cb, Of Uerbs personals there be three kinds, Actiue,
Passiue and Neuter. 1765 W. WARD Ess. Gram. 59, A
verb in the active voice very frequently denotes a state which implies
no real action, as for instance to suffer; and so, a verb
in the passive voice frequently denotes a state which implies no real
suffering, as to be found. 1876 MASON Eng. Gram. 59
We may speak of one and the same action by means either of a verb in
the active voice, or of a verb in the passive voice.

    4. a. Opposed to quiescent or extinct: Existing in action,
working, effective, having practical operation or
results. active list (see LIST n.6); also transf.; active service, war
service in the field, at sea, or in the air.

  1640-4 CAPT. MERVIN in Rushworth Hist. Coll. III. (1692) I. 214 The
Gray-headed Common Laws Funeral; and the
Active Statutes death and Obsequies. 1790 BOSWELL Johnson xxiv.
(Rtldg.) 215 Here was one of the many, many
instances of his active benevolence. 1790 BURKE Fr. Rev. 39 The whole
government would be under the constant
inspection and active controul of the popular representative and of
the magnates of the kingdom. 1829 [see SERVICE n.1 12].
1830 LYELL Princ. Geol. I. 317 Kamtschatka, where there are seven
active volcanos. 1838 Navy List 20 Sept. 118
Alphabetical List of Masters. Those in Italics are unfit for active
Service. 1852 Ibid. 20 Dec. 327 The number of Captains on
the Active List will be reduced to a number not permanently exceeding
350. 1857 LIVINGSTONE Travels vi. 113 It contains
an active poison. 1876 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. II. vii. 102 Weary of
tarrying where there was no chance of active service.
1878 HUXLEY Physiogr. 79 It is the oxygen which is the active agent.
1899 KIPLING Absent-Minded Beggar i, He is out on
active service, wiping something off a slate. 1906 Harmsworth Encycl.
VII. 576/2 No officer on the active list is allowed to
leave the United Kingdom without special permission. 1907 Jrnl. Soc.
Arts LV. 429/1 Of these only the Remington and the
Hammond are to-day on the active list.

    b. spec. in Physics, = RADIOACTIVE a.

  1900 RUTHERFORD in Phil. Mag. XLIX. 163 The top layer of paper over
the thorium was found to be active on its upper
side. 1905 [see active deposit]. 1938 R. W. LAWSON tr. Hevesy &
Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) x. 120 Active
isotopes that are lighter than the stable types disintegrate with
emission of positrons.

    5. Opposed to sluggish or inert: Abounding in action; energetic,
lively, agile, nimble; diligent, busy, brisk.
(Of persons and things.)

  1597 SHAKES. 2 Hen. IV, IV. iii. 24, I were simply the most actiue
fellow in Europe. 1609 Man in the Moone (1849) 31 It
maketh her unfitte to performe any agill or active thing. 1666 PEPYS
Diary (1879) III. 485 He being the activest man in the
World. 1718 POPE Iliad xv. 683 So strong to fight, so active to
pursue. 1786 COWPER Lett. 31 Jan. Wks. 1876 224
Infirmities..which make him less active than he was. 1857 BUCKLE
Civil. iii. 142 Now, the richest Countries are those in
which man is most active. 1863 FAWCETT Pol. Econ. III. vi. 371 An
active demand for any other commodity is characterised
by a rise in its price or value. 1866 ROGERS Agric. & Prices I. xxiii.
599 The most active seat of the trade. 1880 Manch.
Guardian 16 Dec. 4/4 The market to-day has been more active than for a
considerable time.

    6. On the credit side of the balance-sheet, of the nature of an
asset; as opposed to passive, i.e. of the
nature of a liability. (Common in Fr., but hardly English.)

  1875 POSTE Gaius III. 350 Selling the active and passive
universality of the insolvent's estate..to a purchaser who became
liable to the insolvent's creditors.

    7. Used as the first element in such obv. Comb. as active-bodied,
active-limbed, active-minded.

  1870 BRYANT Homer I. v. 152 There the active-limbed, Fleet Iris
stayed them. 1837 WHEWELL Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 121
The pleasure which..active-minded men feel in exercising the process
of deduction. 1878 SEELEY Stein III. 547 The more
active-minded among his contemporaries.

    8. Comb. active carbon, charcoal = activated carbon, charcoal (see
ACTIVATE v. b); active current
Electr. (see quot. 1926); active deposit Physics (see quot. 1955);
active layer Geomorphol., a surface
layer of soil, overlying permafrost, that freezes in winter and thaws
in summer; active mass Chem., the
molecular concentration of a substance (see mass-action (b) s.v. MASS
n.2).

   1918 Jrnl. Industr. & Engin. Chem. X. 813/2 If our object is to
make an active carbon, none of the mineral matter must be
removed before heating. 1921 Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry XL. (Trans.)
231/1 All the secret process active carbons come upon
the market in the form of a fine powder. 1938 Thorpe's Dict. Appl.
Chem. II. 319/2 Active charcoal is widely used in industry
for the recovery of valuable products which exist as attenuated
vapours in unadsorbable gases.

1924 S. R. ROGET Dict. Electr. Terms 2 Active current. 1926 Gloss.
Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 30 Active current, that
component of an alternating current (regarded as a vector quantity)
which is in phase with the voltage.

1905 RUTHERFORD in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 1904 A. CCIV. 172 In speaking
generally of the active matter, which causes
excited activity, without regard to its constituents, I have used the
term `active deposit'. 1906  Radioactive
Transformations iv. 95 All bodies surrounded by the radium emanation
become coated with an invisible active deposit,
possessing physical and chemical properties which sharply distinguish
it from the emanation. 1955 Gloss. Terms Radiology
(B.S.I.) 6 Active deposit, solid radioactive deposit formed by the
decay of a radioactive emanation.

1943 S. W. MULLER Permafrost 5 Above the permafrost is a layer of
ground that thaws in the summer and freezes again in
the winter. This layer represents the seasonally frozen ground and is
called the active layer. 1977 A. HALLAM Planet
Earth 89 The churning of the active layer by freezing and thawing
prevents the development of a stable soil structure.

1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Active mass. 1910 Encycl. Brit. VII. 27/1
These spatial concentrations are often called the `active
masses' of the reacting components. 1932 PHILBRICK & HOLMYARD Text Bk.
Theoret. & Inorg. Chem. II. iii. 110 This law
was first enunciated in 1864 [in Forhandl. i Vidensk.-Selsk. i
Christiania, p. 92] by Guldberg and Waage, who stated that
the rate at which a substance reacted was proportional to its active
mass.

    B. n.

    1. A person devoted to the active life. (Cf. adj. 1 and
CONTEMPLATIVE n. 1.)

  c1380 [see CONTEMPLATIVE B. n. 1]. a1425 Cloud of Unknowing (1944)
5/18 Into is day alle actyues pleynen hem of
contemplatyues, as Martha did on Mary. 1671 PHILLIPS New World of
Words, Actifs, an order of Fryars, that feed on
Roots, and wear tawny habits. 1946 E. A. PEERS Fool of Love vii. 118
It is as an active that Ramon [Lull] appeals to the
present age most widely. 1950 A. HUXLEY Themes & Variations 154 Were
there not then, as always, a few ardent
contemplatives and actives?

    2. [Elliptical uses of the adj.]    a. See ACTIVE a. 1, 2.

    b. Gram. The active voice; an active verb. Cf. PASSIVE n. 2.

  1530 PALSGR. Introd., The actyves have but the pronowne or
substantyve before the verbe. 1582 G. MARTIN Discoverie
Manifold Corruptions i. 13 If passives must be turned into actives,
and actives into passives, participles disagree in case
from their substantives..: who would so presume in the text of holy
Scripture, to haue al grammar..at his commaundement,
but Beza & his lik? 1611 BRINSLEY Pos. Parts. (1669) 29 Cannot a Verb
Neuter take r, to make it a Passive, as Actives
do? c1620 A. HUME Orthogr. Brit. Tongue (1865) 32 Verbes of doing are
actives or passives. The active verb adheres to
the person of the agent; as, Christ hath conquered hel and death. 1669
MILTON Accedence 20 The Active Signifieth to do,
and always endeth in o, as Doceo, I teach. 1818 E. V. BLOMFIELD tr.
Matthiæ's Gr. Gram. II. 710 The effect of the active
consists in determining the case which it governs. 1879 W. W. GOODWIN
Elem. Greek Gram. (new ed.) 110 The
uncontracted forms of the future active and middle of ..are found in
Homer and Herodotus. 1933 O. JESPERSEN
Essent. Eng. Gram. xii. 121 The subject of a passive verb is what in
the active would be an object. But if in the active there
are two objects, only one of them can be made the subject. 1973 N. S.
SMITH tr. Ruwet's Introd. Generative Gram. vi. 114
This solution..still does not allow the formal indication of the
relation between the passive (3) and the active (4). 1985 R.
QUIRK et al. Comprehensive Gram. Eng. Lang. 163 In English,
prepositional verbs..can often occur in the passive, but not
so freely as in the active.

Regs.

Theo

UCL/Mobile Systems

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From: Pat Calhoun <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 10:55:06 -0700

That's all fine and good, but I think that people want to read documents
and not require a dictionary to grasp the actual meaning of the language
used.

:)

PatC

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From: Theo Pagtzis <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 21:06:35 +0100

Hi Pat,

:))

well, so far (last two months) I have heard people using the terms without
a dictionary. The thing is that we had to use some authority (a dictionary)
to prove a point.

If people have been using the terms without knowing (or pretending that
they know) what it is then I stand amazed...but I think this has not been
quite the
case so far..

Theo

UCL/ Mobile Systems