a. and sb. Also 5 stacionarye, Sc. stationeir, 6 stationarie. [ad. L. statiōnārius, in classical Latin ‘belonging to a military station,’ f. statiōn-em STATION sb.: see -ARY. Cf. F. stationnaire, It. stazionario, Sp. estacionario.] A. adj.
1. Having a fixed station or place.
a. Residing or established in one place; not itinerant or migratory.
1670. R. Coke, Disc. Trade, 5. As sundry Laws provided against wandring Beggers … so this Law provides for, and relieves stationary Beggers.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. iv. 38. The court being thus rendered fixed and stationary.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, I. i. A passion for field sports had, with equal constancy, kept his brother stationary.
1815. Jane Austen, Emma, xxxvi. She has now been a longer time stationary there than she ever was before.
1831. Scott, Cast. Dang., ii. We … scorn to be chased from our supper, or cheated out of our share of it by a dozen Scotchmen, whether stationary or strollers.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 388. The stationary lace sellers, for the most part, display their goods on stalls.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, ii. I. 67. I suppose I know the state of Europe as well as if I’d been stationary at Little Treby for the last fifteen years.
1870. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., I. IV. v. 437. Instead of a stationary creature, suppose the creature contemplated to be one that habitually moves about in the water.
1900. Daily News, 17 May, 3/2. A field hospital is a very different affair from a stationary base hospital.
b. Standing still; not moving.
Stationary air, the amount of air that remains constantly in the lungs in ordinary respiration.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 147. No stationary steeds Cough their own knell.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxviii. It was still stationary, and she began to doubt, whether it was really animated.
1826. Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 48. The thermometer was stationary more than 30 hours.
1832. Brewster, Nat. Magic, iv. 65. So that the image may remain stationary.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., ii. The clerk calmly remained in a stationary position.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xi. 211. The sun, being stationary, could not be said to stand still or to move.
1878. H. N. Martin, in Jrnl. Physiol., I. 149. When … the lungs are emptied, some of this pure air must be left in the mouth, and, in the immediately succeeding inspiration, will be sent into the lungs as a sort of ‘tidal air’ with some of the air just expelled from them, which will correspond to the ‘stationary air’ of the mammal.
c. Astr. Said of planets at the portions of their orbits in which they have no apparent motion. (Cf. STATION sb. 5.) Hence stationary point = ‘point of station.’
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 12353. And cause hem [the Planets] in the ffyrmament Ther tabyde stacionarye.
c. 1480. Henryson, Mor. Fab., IV. (Fox’s Confess.), iii. The planeitis … Sum retrograde, and sum stationeir.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 105. The star becomes stationary.
1700. Moxon, Math. Dict. (1701), s.v., Hence a Planet is said to be Stationary, when he is about either of these his Stations.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xxiii. 249. When a planet is stationary, the fact of observation is, that [etc.].
1852. Hind, Astron. Vocab., Stationary Points of a planet’s orbit are those in which as viewed from the earth, it appears to have no motion amongst the stars.
1901. Athenæum, 27 July, 131/2. Jupiter and Saturn … are approaching their stationary points.
d. Having a fixed position; not movable. Of a machine or part of a machine: That remains in one spot when in operation.
1648. Wilkins, Math. Magick, II. iv. 172. Thus much of those Automata, which were said to be fixed and stationary.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 115. The forcing pump is furnished with two valves, which are both stationary.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc. ii. 96. By making everything in the scenery whether stationary or adventitious, darker than any part of the sky.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 661. The low pressure engines used in vessels, which are made twice as strong as stationary engines.
1840. H. S. Tanner, Canals & Rail Roads U. S., 260. Stationary engines, are used for effecting the ascent and descent of carriages along inclined planes. Stationary plane, a plane worked by a stationary engine and rope.
1869. Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. P 5, Looking on the stationary-rivet end of the machine.
1881. Nature, 29 Sept., 514/2. The instrument thus provides a stationary solar star-disk for continuous observation.
1889. G. Findlay, Eng. Railway, 5. Steam [in 1804] … had been applied to the working of stationary engines.
e. Stationary motion: see quot. 1870.
1870. trans. Clausius, in Lond., etc. Philos. Mag., Aug., 123. By stationary motion I mean one in which the points do not continually remove further and further from their original position, and the velocities do not alter continuously in the same direction, but the points move within a limited space, and the velocities only fluctuate within certain limits.
1877. E. J. Routh, Dynamics Rigid Bodies (ed. 3), 283. The first result is clear, since in stationary motion ΣΧ = 0, &c.
† f. Of a battle: Fought without change of place.
1737. Whiston, Josephus, II. Jew. War, VI. ii. 927. This fight was, for the most part, a stationary one.
2. transf. Remaining unchanged in condition, quality or quantity; neither advancing nor retrograding.
1628. Wotton, Let., Reliq. W. (1685), 565. Mine own businesses stand as they did: And … they are rather stationary then retrograde.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. xi. 332. By this way likewise the Moores escape the curse of deformity, there concurring no stationary colour, and sometimes not any unto Beauty.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. viii. I. 87. Though the wealth of a country should be very great, yet if it has been long stationary, we must not expect to find the wages of labour very high in it.
1789. A. Crawford, in Med. Commun., II. 336. The ulcer … appeared to become stationary.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 64. He was discharged as cured by his physician, even at a time when his emaciation was stationary.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., IV. vi. § 1 (1876), 452. At the end of what they term the progressive state lies the stationary state … all progress in wealth is but a postponement of this.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 53. Such laws could be enforced only … when production and population remained … nearly stationary.
1858. Ld. Acton, in Gasquet, Ld. Acton & his Circle (1906), 25. Theology is not a stationary science.
1872. Bagehot, Physics & Pol. (1876), 211. As a rule a stationary state is by far the most frequent condition of man.
1892. Westcott, Gospel of Life, 288. A revelation which deals with man not as a stationary being but as advancing with a continuous growth.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, ii. 16. It would never do if the world remained stationary.
† 3. Standing, in contradistinction to sitting. Obs.
1659. H. L’Estrange, Alliance Div. Off., 120. The stationary posture is most significant.
4. Of or belonging to a station or stations.
† a. Surveying. (Cf. station-distance, -line.)
1571. Digges, Pantom., I. xxiii. G iij b. Draw an arcke rising from the same line that representeth your stationarie distance.
1610. Hopton, Baculum Geodæt., II. i. 19. That your stationary line, or line that you measure, be not too short.
† b. Of or pertaining to a military post. Obs.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 179. The stationarie or garrison souldiors.
1699. Norris, Pract. Disc., 331. The Stationary Angels that wait upon the throne of God.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xviii. II. 105. The stationary troops of Singara retired on the approach of Sapor.
c. Eccl.
1626. Donne, Serm., lxviii. (1640), 688. When we shut our doores, and observe our stationary houres for private prayer in our Chamber.
1693. W. W[otton], Dupin’s Hist. Eccl. Writers, I. II. 94. The Stationary days, that is to say, those days when several of the Faithful continued in Prayer and Fasting till Three a Clock in the Afternoon.
1872. Shipley, Gloss. Eccl. Terms, s.v. Acolyte, In Rome acolytes were of four kinds: 1. Palatial…. 2. Stationary, who served in the church where a station was made.
5. Stationary fever: see quot. 1855.
A rendering of mod.L. febris stationaria (Sydenham).
1696. Pechey, Sydenham’s Wks., I. ii. (1729), 5. Therefore I call these Fevers Stationary.
1742. J. Swan, Sydenham’s Wks., I. ii. (1753), 5, marg. Stationary fevers defined.
1855. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Stationary, a name given by Sydenham and Stoll to certain diseases, which depend upon a particular state of the atmosphere; and which prevail in a district for a certain number of years, and then give way to others.
† 6. ‘Belonging to a stationer’ (T.). Obs.
In the first quot. with reference to exposure in the shop of a ‘stationer’ or bookseller.
1630. I. Craven, God’s Tribunal (1631), Ep. Ded. A 2. Consciousnesse of mine owne meanenesse and withall the great disparity twixt a liuely voice, and breathlesse lines, haue easily disswaded me hitherto from appearing in Stationary view.
1679–88, 1689, 1716, etc. [see STATIONERY 2].
B. sb.
† 1. App. the title of an officer of the royal household: cf. STATIONER 1. Obs.
1485. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 375/2. Lettres Patents made under oure greate Seale to Piers Actores, of the Office of oure Stationary.
2. = STATIONAR 2.
1868. Walcott, Sacred Archæol., 558. [Three orders of acolytes] Palatines…; stationaries, those connected with the arrangement of stations and processions; and regionaries.
3. Elliptical uses of the adj.
† a. A planet when stationary. Obs. rare–1.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. xvi. I. 11. As also, that then they [the planets] are Stationaries in their houses which be in the middle points of the latitudes, which they cal eclipticks.
† b. An indulgence for attending a station. Obs. rare–1. [See note under MANUARY sb.]
1537. trans. Latimer’s Serm. Convoc., ii. D j b. How some brought forth … pardons, & these of wonderful varietie, some Stationaries, some Iubilaryes.
c. One of a force of permanent or stationary troops. Obs. exc. Rom. Hist. (= L. stationarius), a member of a kind of military constabulary.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 359. Besides 80000 Stationaries to and again in Garisons.
1727. H. Herbert, trans. Fleury’s Eccl. Hist., I. 544. I will read the information given in by the Stationary concerning these persons here present. Ibid., 545. Since … you have not obeyed the stationaries and chief soldiers who sollicited you to renounce Jesus Christ in writing.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xx. The stationaries are mine already. So are the soldiery all the way up the Nile.
d. A politician hostile to progress. Also transf. (nonce-use), one who does not wish to go forward.
1831. Examiner, 225/1. ‘The lame and impotent conclusion’ which the Stationaries are desirous of putting to the Revolution of July.
1852. Mrs. P. Sinnett, trans. Huc’s Journ. Tartary, xv. 234. The caravan became forthwith divided between the party of movement and that of resistance,—the progressives and the stationaries.
