a. and sb. [ad. late L. submultiplus: see SUB- 10 and MULTIPLE.]
A. adj. Of a ratio: In which the antecedent is an aliquot part of the consequent: the converse of multiple. Of a number, etc.: That is an aliquot part of another. Now rare or Obs.
a. 1696. Scarburgh, Euclid (1705), 180. 12 compared to 4 is Multiple Proportion, and named triple: And 4 to 12 is Submultiple Proportion, and named Subtriple.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Submultiple Number, or Quantity, is that which is contained in another Number, a certain Number of Times exactly.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The Ratio of 3 to 21 is Submultiple.
1739. in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), I. 355. The sine of 1/n A (or submultiple part of the anomaly of the eccentric).
B. sb. A submultiple or aliquot part (of).
1758. Phil. Trans., L. 765, note. These arcs [are] the corresponding submultiples of those above.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., xiv. § 1. 773. Equivalent quantities of different salts when in solution occupy either the same volume, or volumes which are simple multiples or submultiples of each other.
1859. Parkinson, Optics (1866), 244. If the angle of a hollow cone … be any sub-multiple of 180°.
1871. C. Davies, Metric Syst., II. 40. [A] system of numbers where the multiples and submultiples are formed from a single unit.
1880. E. J. Reed, Japan, I. 326. Its [the yen’s] decimal submultiples being the sen (or cent) and the rin.
So † Submultiplicate a. = A. above.
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 364. The proportion of the altitudes decreasing to that of the ordinate lines decreasing, being multiplicate according to any number in the deficient figure, is submultiplicate according to the same number in its complement.
