a. and sb. Also 7–8 statick, 7 statique. [ad. mod.L. staticus, a. Gr. στατικός causing to stand, also pertaining to or skilled in weighing, f. στα-, ἱστάναι to cause to stand, to weigh. The sb. (= F. statique, It. statica) is ad. mod.L. statica, ad. Gr. στατική (sc. τέχνη) the art of weighing, ellipt. use of the adj.] A. adj.
† 1. Of or pertaining to weighing or the use of the balance: = STATICAL a. 1. Obs.
Static barometer = statical baroscope: see STATICAL 1. Static chair: the Sanctorian weighing chair (see SANCTORIAN a.) for determining the amount of insensible perspiration by weighing the body; static medicine, the branch of medical science concerned with the study of the variations of insensible perspiration as thus determined.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. vii. 196. In the middle of summer,… a man weigheth some pounds lesse then in the heighth of winter, according to … the statick aphorismes of Sanctorius.
1676. J. Davies, trans. Sanctorius’ Med. Statica, Acc. Weighing Chair A 6. That perspiration which is commodiously weigh’d by the Chair, any one may easily understand by our Book of Statick Medicine.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., ii. 16. Sanctorious … by his Statick-Chair, found Five Eights of the Nourishment … pass off by insensible Perspiration.
a. 1734. North, Life Ld. Keeper Guilford (1742), 293. About this Time [c. 1675] … Sir Samuel Moreland publish’d a Piece, containing a Device…. This he call’d a statick Barometer.
† 2. Pertaining to the effect of weight or the conditions of the equilibrium of weight: often said of experiments for determining specific gravity. Of a power or principle: Operative in the production of equilibrium; also fig. Obs.
1638. Wilkins, New World, I. (1684), 170. And that upon this Statick Principle; any Brass or Iron Vessel … whose Substance is much Heavier than that of the Water, yet being Filled with the Lighter Air, it will … not Sink.
1659. H. More, Immort. Soul, III. iii. § 10. 361. If we consider the nature of the Windes, the nature of these Vehicles, & the Statick power of the Soule.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 105. After a few vibrations up and down (as is Observable in all Statick Experiments) they arrive at a Counterpoise.
1668. Howe, Bless. Righteous, i. 3. He … subjoyns some account of himself, in this his closure of the Psalm: As for me, Here he is at his statique point. Ibid., viii. 145. And if Philosophy and … Christianity, Reason and Faith have that statique power, can so compose the soul … in the midst of storms and tempests: how [etc.].
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life, II. vii. § 9, Wks. 1718, I. 444. Our City-Companies … still retain the same Laws and Charters, which are the statique Principles or Forms that individuate them, and keep them still the same.
1775. Sir E. Barry, Observ. Wines, 391. It is very evident from Static experiments, that [etc.].
† b. Of a mental condition: Balanced, stable. Obs. rare.
1652. Evelyn, St. France, Pref. Let. B. It is (I confesse) a thing extreamly difficult to be at all times, and in all places thus reserved, and as it were obliged to Temper so Statick and exact among all conversations.
3. Pertaining to forces in equilibrium, or to bodies at rest: opposed to dynamic.
1850. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 2), 74. I have used … the terms dynamic and static to represent the different states of magnetism.
1857. Edin. Rev., July, 36. The Voltaic battery reproduces the tension, and the earth repeats the neutralisation, and so the force which was static in the wire is rendered dynamic.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), II. 303. Thus, purely trabeated architecture sleeps in safety, while arcuated architecture never ceases to exert force. The one is static, the other a dynamic style—only becoming static when its abutments are of undoubted sufficiency.
1881. O. J. Longe, in Nature, XXIII. 303. Electrical energy may exist in … the static form, when [etc.].
b. Applied spec. to designate frictional as opposed to voltaic electricity. Cf. STATICAL a. 4 b.
1839. Faraday, Exp. Res. Electr., I. 534, heading, Theory of static induction.
1876. F. Guthrie, Magnetism & Electr. (title of Book I), Frictional or Static Electricity.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 6 Jan., 2/1. A static current, such as produced by the Holtz machine, will be sent over the wires.
1890. G. M. Gould, New Med. Dict., s.v., Static Breeze, a method of administration of static electricity.
4. transf. and fig. = STATICAL a. 5.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, III. § 1. 129. Causation may be viewed either as static or dynamic.
1889. J. M. Robertson, Ess. Critical Method, 5. it was very natural that the fresh mediaeval intelligence, to which the recovered past came as a splendid treasure-trove, should … set up the old standards of static criticism, to last till the influx of new knowledge … wrought [etc.].
1897. A. B. Walkley, Maeterlinck’s Treas. Humble, Introd. p. xiii. M. Maeterlinck boldly asks whether a ‘static’ theatre is impossible, a theatre of mood not of movement, a theatre where nothing material happens and where everything immaterial is felt.
1904. Edin. Rev., Oct., 307. By a ‘static’ character we mean one that is a fixed quantity in the play; essentially the same force in magnitude and direction from the rise to the fall of the curtain.
1907. J. B. Clark, Essent. Economic Theory, viii. 128. The Sign of a Static State.—The sign of the existence of a static condition is, therefore, that labor and capital, though they are perfectly free to move from one employment to another,… still do not move. Ibid., 131. Influences that disturb the Static Equilibrium.
1909. W. R. Inge, Faith, vii. 122. Revelation, like inspiration, is a process, not a static condition.
b. Gram. Expressive of a state as distinguished from an action or process.
1871. B. H. Kennedy, Publ. Sch. Lat. Gram., § 127. Many Static Verbs take the cause or motive of the state as an Object, and so become Transitive.
5. Path. and Phys. in various applications.
a. (See quot.) rare–0.
1855. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Static, an epithet applied to the physical phenomena presented by organized bodies in contradistinction to the organic or vital.
b. Structural or organic as opposed to functional.
1855. J. R. Reynolds, Diagn. Dis. Brain, II. ix. 126. Although post mortem examination can reveal no static (anatomical) change, the simple fact of convulsion is proof of dynamic (functional) disease.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 639. We must avoid any confusion between the static results of past peritonitis and the slowly progressive changes of the chronic disease. Ibid. (1899), VII. 238. One of those anomalous fatal instances in which the medulla has been found apparently free from static disease.
c. Of a disease, etc.: Characterized by STASIS.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg. (1884), I. 92. Static or venous gangrene includes those [cases] in which stagnation of blood is caused by the mechanical arrest of the circulation through the veins.
d. Of or pertaining to a standing posture.
1898. Syd. Soc. Lex., Static ataxia, the failure of muscular coordination in standing still, or in any fixed position of the limbs.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 900. Saltatory spasm. Syn.—Saltatoric spasm; Static reflex spasm.
e. (See quot.)
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 829. There is no mental stimulus to the combination of the retinal images, and the eyes remain in their static or resting position.
f. Tending to maintain equilibrium.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 372. The cerebellum normally exerts on the apparatus of movement, a sthenic, tonic and static influence.
6. Machinery. a. (See quot.)
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 237/1. [Power transmission (Electr.)] Such disturbances [as minor surges] when trivial are commonly referred to as ‘static.’
b. Of an electric transformer or generator: Having all its parts stationary, non-rotary.
1903. Nature, 15 Jan., 248/1. The Hewitt Mercury Lamp and Static Converter.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXVII. 173/1. [In a continuous current transformer] some part of the machine must revolve, whereas in the alternating current transformer all parts … are stationary; hence the former is generally called a rotary transformer, and the latter a static transformer.
B. sb.
1. = STATICS. Now rare.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., b iiij. Statike, is an Arte Mathematicall, which demonstrateth the causes of heauynes, and lightnes of all thynges: and of motions and properties, to heauynes and lightnes, belonging.
1578. W. Bourne, Treas. Trav., IV. 2. The which Art or Science, called Staticke, dooth shewe the heauinesse or lightnesse of any thing.
a. 1583. in Halliwell, Rara Mathem. (1841), 33. Youre Honoure had some speeche with mee, as touching measuring the moulde of a shipp. Whiche gave mee occasyon to wryte a litle Boke of Statick.
1873. [see DYNAMIC sb.].
2. The metrology of weights. Obs. rare.
1699. Bentley, Phalaris, 456. Talent originally is a word of Static [printed Statics, but see Errata], and means lx pound weight of any thing.
† 3. (See quot.) Obs.–0
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Staticks, Statici, in Medicine, a kind of Epilepticks, or Persons seiz’d with Epilepsies. The Staticks differ from the Catalepticks, in that, these last [etc.].
