Forms: 4 cardinale, 5 -enale, 5–6 -ynall, 6–7 -inall, 4 -inal. [a. F. cardinal, ad. L. cardināl-is pertaining to a hinge, principal, chief, f. cardo, cardin-em hinge.
The specific applications in Eng. (found also in other mod. European langs.) follow those of the Latin word (classical or post-classical). The analogy of cardinal winds (L. venti cardinales), whence cardinal points, etc., led to a certain association of the adj. with the number four, as in cardinal virtues, cardinal humours.]
I. From fig. uses of the Latin adj.
1. gen. On which something else hinges or depends, fundamental; chief, principal, of special importance. (Almost always of abstract things.)
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 62. Cardenale, cardinalis.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 36 b. For the cardinall iudgement against it.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, I. xi. (1640), 94. The cardinall grace, that on which all other graces move as the doore upon its hinges.
1650. R. Gell, Serm., 8 Aug., 19. Ye read of … four cardinal Angels.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 629. One of the above cardinal crimes [theft, adultery, murder].
1821. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1867), I. 316. One cardinal fault which pervades the work.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, i. (1870), 5. A cardinal argument for placing the date of the Poet near that of his subject.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xv. (ed. 5), 245. To that position three cardinal duties were attached.
2. Cardinal virtues (Lat. virtutes cardinales): in scholastic philosophy, justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude, accounted the four chief ‘natural’ virtues as distinguished from the ‘theological’ virtues of faith, hope and charity. Some modern writers include these, and speak of ‘seven’ cardinal virtues; so the ‘seven cardinal sins.’
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10008. Þas er four vertus principals, Þe quilk man clepes cardinals … Þat es rightwisnes, and meth, For-sight, and strenght.
1340. Ayenb., 123. Zeue oþre uirtues huer-of þe þri byeþ yclieped godliche and þe uour byeþ y-cleped cardinals.
c. 1470. Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822), 5. The foure vertues callyd cardynall.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 11. The vertues cardynall, with the vertues morall.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. i. 103. I thought ye … two reuerend Cardinall Vertues, But Cardinall Sins, and hollow hearts I feare ye.
1649. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 363. The 4 chief cardinal vertues.
1852. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Madonna (1857), 94. The seven cardinal virtues.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, x. 266. The four cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance.
b. Cardinal virtues also occurs in the general sense (1).
1640. Watts, Bacon’s Adv. Learn., Pref. 33. A seperate history of their virtues: we mean, such as in nature may be accounted Cardinall.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xiii. 63. Force, and Fraud, are in warre the two Cardinall vertues.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, 103. That cardinal virtue, patience.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. § 11 (1864), 217. In every kind of expression clearness is a cardinal virtue.
3. Cardinal number (Arith.): a number that answers the question ‘how many?’; one of the primitive or ‘natural’ numbers (one, two, three, etc.), as distinguished from the ORDINAL numbers (first, second, third, etc.).
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., B iij b. The numerals are either Cardinall, that is, principall, vpon which the rest depend.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 328. Adverbs Cardinals; as semel, bis, ter, &c.
1711. J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 277. Three is a cardinal number.
1845. Stoddart, in Encycl. Metrop. (1847), I. 45/1. Numerals are commonly divided into cardinal and ordinal.
4. Cardinal points; a. the four points of the horizon (or the heavens) which lie in the direction of the earth’s two poles (cardines), and of sunrise and sunset respectively; the four intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical; the north, south, east and west points. Cardinal winds: the four chief or main winds that blow from these points.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. (1872), 61. Ther is iiij. callit vyndis cardinal.
1643. Parables on Times, 15. All the winds in the compasse, both collaterall and cardinall.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 26. They … subdivided the four cardinal winds to two and thirty.
1755. B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sc., III. ii. 179. Four of them are called the Cardinal Points … S, the South; W, the West; N, the North; E, the East … sometimes called the four Winds of Heaven.
1862. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., I. v. 96. The angles of the building exactly face the four cardinal points.
† b. of the ecliptic: Astrol. and Astron. The two equinoctial and two solstitial points of the ecliptic; also applied to the corresponding signs of the zodiac, viz. Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricornus, called also cardinal signs. Also, in a horoscope, ‘the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth Houses’ (Bailey). Obs.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xvi. (ed. 7), 311. The two Equinoxes, and the two Solstices, are commonly called the foure cardinall or principall points.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., Wks. (1686), 235. The cardinal intersections of the zodiack.
1839. Bailey, Festus, viii. (1848), 94. Diurnal, cardinal, Nocturnal, equinoctial, hot or dry.
c. of the prime vertical: ‘Astrol. The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir’ (Webster); = cardines (see CARDO).
5. Phys.
† Cardinal humours: ‘an old term for four principal humours, viz. blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile’ (obs.)
Cardinal veins: ‘the venous trunks … which transmit the blood in the early embryo from the Wolffian bodies, the vertebral column and the parietes of the trunk to the sinus venosus by means of the ducts of Cuvier. Similar veins from the anterior part of the body join the duct of Cuvier. These are sometimes called anterior cardinal veins and the others posterior cardinal veins’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.)
6. In R. C. Ch. Cardinal bishop, priest, deacon: a rendering of Lat. episcopus, presbyter, diaconus cardinalis; see CARDINAL sb., which arose from the absol. use of the adj. in this sense. Also (Hist.) Cardinal church: rendering of ecclesia cardinalis, the name given in early times to the principal or ‘parish’ churches of Rome, to distinguish them from the ‘oratories’ subordinate to them.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. III. 68. The Title of Cardinal was first given to the Places, that is, to the Cardinal Churches, but apply’d afterwards to the persons that Govern’d them. Ibid., 72. There are six Cardinal Bishops, fifty Cardinal Priests, and fourteen Cardinal Deacons.
II. 7. Zool. Pertaining to the hinge of a bivalve shell.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 708/1. The part of the shell … upon which the hinge occurs, is called its cardinal edge.
1850. Dana, Geol., App. i. 691. The cardinal area is nearly wanting. Ibid. (1862), Man. Geol., 180. The insertions of the cardinal muscle.
III. [f. CARDINAL sb.] 8. Of the color of a cardinal’s cassock; deep scarlet.
1879. Daily News, 13 June, 2/2. The Princess of Wales, who appeared in a black satin dress with ‘cardinal’ trimmings.
1882. Garden, 7 Oct., 309/2. Single Dahlias … fine deep cardinal.
1887. Sat. Rev., Jan., 19. The young lady in cardinal hose and a scarlet hood.
