v. [ad. med.L. connotā-re to mark along with, to mark (a thing) with or in addition to (another), f. L. con- together with + notāre to mark, to NOTE.
The Latin word was in common use in mediæval logic: app. first, according to Prantl, in Duns Scotus, and frequently in Occam, and so onwards in the terminology of the schools; thence it passed into English literary use; but its use as an English technical term of logic is recent, and due to Jas. and J. S. Mill.
a. 1300. Duns Scotus (in Prantl, III. 134, note 598). Tam secundum significatum quam secundum connotatum.
a. 1347. Occam (ibid., 364, n. 829), Quaedam sunt synonyma, quia simpliciter idem significant et connotant.
1657. Heerebord, Ἑρμηνεία Logica (1680), 151. Ideoque [vox concreta] illud consignificat seu connotat; ut justus significat justitiam, sed quae concernit et connotat hominem in quo est.]
1. trans. To signify secondarily or in addition; to include or imply along with the primary or essential meaning.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 271. Ὁ ὄφις ὁ ἀρχαῖος connoting the Roman Empire as well as the Devil.
1693. South, Serm. (1747), III. 434. Good … over and above the bare Being of a Thing, Connotes also a certain sutableness or agreeableness of it to some other thing.
1872. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), II. 389. Deism … connotes along with natural religion a negation of the truth or reality of the Christian revelation.
2. Of things or facts: To imply or involve as a consequence, condition, or accompaniment.
a. 1655. Vines, Lord’s Supp. (1677), 160. A practical remembrance which connotes affections fruitful effect.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. (1810), I. 128. This faith doth not only denote precisely … such opinions and persuasions … but doth also connote and imply such acts of will, as … are naturally consequent upon them.
1757. Wesley, Wks. (1872), IX. 243. But ‘punishment always connotes guilt.’ It always connotes sin and suffering; and here are both.
1867. Sat. Rev., 7 Dec., 719/1. A luxury which connotes a high condition of intellect and character, but still a luxury.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., xxi. 376. The descent of snow in one place connotes the evaporation of water in another locality.
† 3. To combine in signifying (something); to mean in combination. Obs.
1786. H. Tooke, Purley (1798), I. 305. The cypher, which has no value of itself, and only serves (if I may use the language of Grammarians) to connote and consignify, and to change the value of figures. Ibid. (1805), (1815), II. 437. Some Grammarians have said that an Adjective only connotes, and means nothing by itself.
4. Logic. (Of a term.) † a. With the earlier logicians: To imply or indicate the subject in which an attribute inheres, while primarily signifying or ‘noting’ the attribute itself. Obs. b. With J. S. Mill: To imply or indicate the attributes involved, while denoting (or being predicated of) the subject.
As to the change of use, see note to Connotative term, and cf. quot. 1829 with Heerebord above.
1829. Jas. Mill, Hum. Mind (1878), I. i. § 5. 34, note. White, in the phrase white horse, denotes two things, the colour and the horse; but it denotes the colour primarily, the horse secondarily. We shall find it very convenient to say … that it notes the primary, connotes the secondary signification.
1846. J. S. Mill, Logic, I. ii. § 5. The word white, denotes all white things, as snow, paper, the foam of the sea, etc., and implies, or as it was termed by the schoolmen, connotes, the attribute of whiteness. Ibid. The name … is said to signify the subjects directly, the attributes indirectly; it denotes the subjects, and implies, or involves, or indicates, or as we shall say henceforth, connotes, the attributes. It is a connotative name. Ibid. Whenever the names given to objects convey any information, that is, whenever they have properly any meaning, the meaning resides not in what they denote, but in what they connote.
1887. Fowler, Deduct. Logic, ii. 19. A term may be said to denote or designate individuals, to connote or mean attributes or groups of attributes.
b. Hence, in general, non-technical use: To imply, include in its signification, convey to the mind or mean in actual use and application. (Often loosely used.)
1865. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), II. 216. A man may believe the facts which the doctrine connotes without believing the doctrine.
1867. Lewes, Hist. Philos., I. Introd. 64. The terms ‘three and three’ and ‘six’ denote the same relations, connote different ideas.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., iv. 148. It is Christianity alone which breathed into it all that it connotes.
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. (ed. 2), 45. Characters which the name is not intended to connote.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 431. The word [Council] connotes a totally different order of conceptions to those that were prevalent at that early time.
Hence Connoted ppl. a.
1829. Jas. Mill, Hum. Mind (1878), I. ix. 300. It is often highly convenient to drop the connotation; that is, to leave out the connoted cluster.
