a. and sb. Now rare or Obs. [ad. L. subsistens, -ent-, pr. pple. of subsistĕre to SUBSIST. Cf. F. subsistant.]
A. adj.
1. Existing substantially or really; existing of or by itself.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. viii. 294. Things essentiall, or subsistent, not Chimeraes onely.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. x. 42. Those which deny there are spirits subsistent without bodies.
a. 1688. Cudworth, Immut. Mor. (1731), 17. The Modes of all Subsistent Beings … are immutably and necessarily what they are.
1701. Norris, Ideal World, I. iii. 145. Since God is very subsistent being nothing of the perfection of being can be wanting to him.
1911. Webster, Subsistent form, Schol., a form capable of existing apart from matter.
† 2. Inherent or residing in. Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 197 b. How and after what maner those iii persones be subsistent in one deite.
1607. Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr., I. ii. 114. A gesture of prayer either explicit or implicit at the least, and that not by it selfe existent, but subsistent in prayer.
1692. Bentley, Serm., ii. (1724), 62. No sensible Qualities, as Light, and Colour, and Heat, and Sound, can be subsistent in the Bodies themselves absolutely consider’d, without a relation to our Eyes, and Ears, and other Organs of Sense.
† 3. Continuing in existence, lasting. Obs.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xii. 350. Seeing all things are subject to passe from one change to another; reason … findes hir selfe deceived, as vnable to apprehend any thing subsistant and permanent.
4. Subsisting at a specified or implied time.
1832. Carlyle, Misc. Ess., Death of Goethe (1840), IV. 120. Men whose Impulse had not completed its development till after fifteen hundred years, and might perhaps be seen still individually subsistent after two thousand.
1849. Blackw. Mag., LXV. 206/2. But the hard words of the ministers of government do break bones; and such words must be accepted as serious indications of subsistent evil.
5. Having means of subsistence. nonce-use.
1751. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 383. The Prince’s servants could no longer oppose, if they meant to be consistent. I told this to Mr. Chute, who replied instantly, ‘Pho! he meant subsistent.’
B. sb.
† 1. A subordinate, inferior. Obs.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. ii. 151. Hee hath subsistants and ministers to performe their office.
2. A being or thing that subsists.
1656. Stanley, Hist. Philos., VIII. (1687), 433/2. The place of significats is divided into Phantasies, and subsistents on phantasie, dicibles, axioms, &c.
1694. Burthogge, Reason, 244. It becomes a Suppositum or Subsistent by it self.
1906. Athenæum, 17 July, 204/1. These primary facts fall into three orders: the orders of physical and psychical existents, and objects of thought (such as relations, numbers, &c.), which may be called objective subsistents.
† 3. Theol. = SUBSISTENCE 6. Obs.
1671. Flavel, Fount. Life, v. 11. The second person or subsistent in the glorious Godhead.
a. 1705. Howe, Lett. to Friend, Wks. 1724, II. 586. To say that all Perfection is in each subsistent; which I like better than Subsistence, as more expressive of the Concrete.
a. 1802. T. Bell, View Cov. Wks. & Grace (1814), 434. The Father is a person, a subsistent in the Godhead.
