a. (and sb.) [ad. L. canonic-us, = Gr. κανονικός of or according to CANON; or a. F. canonique. Already in OE. as sb. = modern CANON2.]
1. Authorized by, or according to, ecclesiastical canons: = CANONICAL 1.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 219/1. Euery day atte vii houres canonyques.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 516/2. By an olde canonike and sure grounded custom of ye churche.
1664. Dryden, Rival Ladies, I. ii. ’Tis Evening now, and the Canonick Hours For Marriage are past.
1674. Butler, Hud., I. I. 257.
| It was Canonick [1663 monastick], and did grow | |
| In Holy Orders by strict vow. |
1812. Combe (Dr. Syntax), Picturesque, VIII. The Doctor, in canonic state, Now op’d at once the churchyard gate.
2. Of or pertaining to the canon of Scripture; = CANONICAL 2.
1634–46. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 53. Some portion of holie Canonick Scripture.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 6. The Church’s last prayer in canonic Scripture is for union.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., iv. 150. Not to be traced in the canonic writings.
3. gen. Having the authority of an accepted rule or type; classic; = CANONICAL 4.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 138. 115. His numerous pictures of gods and heroes (as his Theseus) attained a canonic consideration in art.
4. Mus. Following the strict rules of canon-form. (Cf. CANONICAL 6.)
1854. trans. Cherubini’s Counterpoint, 45/2. Canonic imitation is that where the consequent responds to the antecedent, note for note, from beginning to end.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 654/1. The voices move, in strict canonic imitation, on a ground-bass.
5. Of or belonging to the order of canons; = CANONICAL 7.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 426/1. They toke not the canonyke breed, for the chanonnes that were at yt tyme … gouerned them self after the reule of Saynt Austyn.
B. sb. 1. = CANON sb.2; one in canonical orders. (L. canonicus.)
a. 1000. Laws of Ethelbert, vi. 2 (Bosw.). Godes þeowas, biscopas and abbodas, munecas and mynecene, canonicas and nunnan.
1678. R. Barclay, Apol. Quakers, XII. § x. 443. Ten Canonicks, so called, were burnt for that Crime.
a. 1853. Landor, Wks., I. 60/1. The bones had been verified … in presence of the archbishop, the canonics, and the protonotary.
2. A scheme or system of logical rules or dialectic; = the Epicurean τὸ κανονικόν.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 548/2. Thus may this short Canonick or Treatise of Rules, serve instead of a laborious and prolix Dialectick.
1847. Lewes, Hist. Philos., VIII. ii. (1871), I. 351. The Epicurean Logic called Canonic, which is a collection of rules respecting human reason and its application.
† 3. a. The theory of music or harmony (ἡ κανονική). b. One who studies music theoretically (of the Pythagoreans, who were called οἱ κανονικί).
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 385/1. The Pythagoreans named that which we now call Harmonick, Canonick…. A Canonick in general is a Harmonick, who is conversant about that which consists of Harmony.
