[a. F. contexture (Montaigne, 1572–80), = It. contestura (Florio), prob. repr. a med.L. *contextūra, f. context- ppl. stem of contexĕre: cf. L. textūra TEXTURE. Very common in 17th c.; now rare.]
1. The action or process of weaving together or intertwining; the fact of being woven together; the manner in which this is done, texture.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. xi. ¶ 5. Christ … will provide one [scourge] of his own contexture.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 46. In the Silk Ribbans, you might plainly see the Contexture.
1691. E. Taylor, trans. Behmen’s Theos. Philos., 64. The profitable Contexture of the Silk-worm.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 89 b. Oziers … strike their Roots into the Rampart, and by the contexture of their Fibres strengthen the whole work.
1877. Bryant, Sella, 78. Then Sella hung the slippers in the porch … and all who passed Admired their fair contexture.
b. Sc. Law. (See quot.) Cf. CONSTRUCTURE 2.
1861. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., Contexture is a mode of industrial accession borrowed from the Roman Law. It takes place where things belonging to one are wrought into another’s cloth, and are carried therewith as accessary.
2. transf. The linking together of materials or elements, so as to form a connected structure (natural or artificial); the manner in which the parts of a thing are thus united.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. vii. § 4. Touching the Contexture or Configuration of things.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., vi. 207. A true understanding of things in their coherence and contexture.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. ii. § 14. Without this there cannot be imagined any concourse of Atoms at all, much less any such contexture of bodyes out of them.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iii. § 25. 131. Secundary Results from certain fortuitous Concretions and Contextures of Atoms.
1748. trans. Vegetius’ Distemp. Horses, 81. The Joinings and Contexture of the Belly and Intestines.
1866. Felton, Anc. & Mod. Gr., II. vii. 401. The people … are well shaped and of excellent contexture.
b. fig. of things non-material.
1604. Daniel, Fun. Poem Earl Devonshire. How that brave mind was built, and in what sort All thy contexture of thy heart hath been.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 29. The Roman Church, having by a regular Contexture of continued Policy … interwoven itself with the Secular Interest.
a. 1716. South, Serm., II. viii. Such small … hints have sometimes unravelled … the contexture of the deepest villanies.
1861. Beresf. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th C., v. 168. The services became more lengthy in their recitation, and more artificial in their contexture.
3. The structure, composition, or texture of anything made up by the combination of elements. Now chiefly fig. from 1.
a. 1639. Wotton, in Reliq. (1651), 170. Now for the Constitution and Character of his [Edgar Atheling’s] Person and Mind: He was not of any delicate Contexture: His Limbs rather sturdy then dainty: Sublime and almost Tumbrous in His Looks and Gestures.
1665–6. Phil. Trans., I. 35. A large Mushrom of a loose watrish contexture.
1720. W. Gibson, Diet. Horses, vii. (ed. 3), 111. In some Contextures of Body this produces no immediate effect.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones (1775), III. 86. Women are of a nice contexture; and our spirits, when disordered, are not to be recomposed in a moment.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., II. 225. Stones apparently hard, are sometimes more subject to decay than those of a softer contexture.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 525. Society’s whole contexture.
4. That which is put together or constructed by the intertwining of parts. a. quasi-concr. A mass of things interwoven together.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. xix. (1632), 37. Shall I not change this goodly contexture of things for you?
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 491. The Corpus Callosum is nothing but a Contexture of small Fibres.
1752. Chesterf., Lett., III. cclxxiii. 250. That most ingenious contexture of truth and lies.
1876. Alexander, Bampton Lect. (1877), 229. A great contexture of converging probabilities.
b. An interwoven structure, a fabric.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. liii. (1632), 168. All this our contexture is built of weake and decaying peeces.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 17. How many thousand parts of Matter must go to make up this heterogeneous Contexture?
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., I. I. iv. 12. These kind of Contextures are not made of Vegetables, but of the Stone Amiantus.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 361. We must not pick out single threads but regard the whole contexture as one piece.
5. The weaving together of words, sentences, etc., in connected composition; the construction or composition of a writing as consisting of connected and coherent members.
1603. Daniel, Def. Rhime (1717), 19. The contexture of Words.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. ii. § 2. A perfect continuance or contexture of the thread of the narration.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., III. iii. 309. The Contexture of sentence with sentence.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, Pref. A iij. There is one thing I may properly call my own, and that is the Stile, and Contexture of the book.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 25, ¶ 9. The art of dramatick disposition, the contexture of the scenes.
1873. H. Rogers, Orig. Bible, v. 206. The contexture, peculiarities, and relations of the several books.
b. The connected structure or ‘body’ of a literary composition; a connected passage or composition.
a. 1619. Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng., Pref. (1626), 1. It is more then the Worke of one man … to compose a passable Contexture of the whole History of England.
1628. Hobbes, Thucyd., Pref. Being discourses inserted, and not of the contexture of the Narration.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 122, ¶ 12. Collateral events are so artfully woven into the contexture of his principal story.
1785. Reid, Int. Powers, VI. vi. 452. Any contexture of words which does not make a proposition is neither true nor false.
c. = CONTEXT 4.
1608. T. Morton, Preamb. to Encounter, 17. Which the contexture may seeme also to import.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 11. If we view the contexture of the place, we shall find [etc.].
a. 1672. Sterry, Posth. Wks., II. 360. This Text lying in this contexture.
1878. S. Cox, Salv. Mundi (1884), 44. Is there anything in the intention and contexture of these ten passages to warrant so grave a departure from the common meanings of the words?
