[ad. L. substitūtus, -um, masc. and neut. of substitūtus pa. pple. (see next). Cf. F. substitut, etc.]
I. A person acting in place of another.
1. One exercising deputed authority; a deputy, delegate.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxx. 78. Though a reame haue a noble kynge … he ne suffiseth nought hym selue to gouerne … his reame withouten other substitutes sett in diuerse places.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 194. [He] has laiser … to set his substitute with the tane and him self with the tothir.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., V. cxl. (1811), 125. He therefore puruayed vnder hym a substitute, named Nordobert, whyle he retornyd into Austracy or Lorayne.
1575. Gascoigne, Glasse Govt., Wks. 1910, II. 29. These Magistrates must also bee … honored because they are ye substituts of ye king.
1608. Shaks., Per., V. iii. 51. When I did flie from Tyre, I left behind an ancient substitute.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, III. xlii. 274. The Power … was given to the … Apostles, and their Substitutes [etc.].
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 403. My Substitutes I send ye, and Create Plenipotent on Earth.
a. 1721. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 291. Here I stand the substitute of Rome.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. viii. 287. They belong to the king or his substitute without redemption.
1843–56. Bouvier, Law Dict. (ed. 6), II. 555/2. In letters of attorney, power is generally given to the attorney to nominate and appoint a substitute.
b. Of ecclesiastics.
1567. Allen, Def. Priesthood, 386. Excommunication … may be exercised by the Bishops Legates or Substituts being no priestes.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. 1904, II. 129. Reuerend Ecclesiasticall Fathers, and other speciall-titled Church substitutes.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. v. Poor Bishop Pompignan withdraws; having got Lafayette for helper or substitute.
1873. Hale, In His Name, viii. 69. The archbishop’s substitute.
† c. By substitute: by proxy. Obs. rare–1.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 181. First was he contract to Lady Lucie,… And afterward by substitute betroth’d To Bona.
2. Law. A person nominated in remainder.
1758. J. Dalrymple, Ess. Feudal Property (ed. 2), 135. That if any of the substitutes or their issue should alienate, then their right in the estate should cease.
1765–8. Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., III. viii. § 21. The person first called by the entail is the institute;… the rest get the name of the heirs of entail, or substitutes.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xxi. 355. The act of the ancestor shall bind the heir, and the act of the principal his substitute.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 950. Substitutes in an entail, are those heirs who are called failing the institute, whether disponee or grantee.
1869. J. Austin’s Jurispr. (ed. 3), II. 864, note. In English law, in rights of … limited duration, the party entitled cannot alienate so as to defeat the reversioners or substitutes.
3. Mil. One who for a remuneration agrees to serve in place of another balloted for the militia.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., Substitute in the Militia, a person who voluntarily offers to serve in the room of another that has been chosen by ballot…. Substitutes may be provided for quakers.
1811. Gen. Regul. Army, 201. No Soldier is to receive a Furlough on the plea of assisting to provide Substitutes for himself.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 263. Every Prussian subject must be a soldier, consequently there can be no serving by substitute as in our militia.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 138. The proved inferiority in all respects of the substitutes provided.
4. gen. One who acts or is employed in place of another.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., iv. 166. We maintain … that some substitute to discharge the office of personal remorse must be demanded.
1849. in ‘Bat,’ Crick. Man. (1850), 57. No substitute in the field shall be allowed to bowl.
1873. Spencer, Study Sociol., i. 15. In China where a criminal can buy a substitute to be executed in his stead.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 136/1. The worshippers as a whole bear the guilt until they or the guilty man himself find a substitute.
1894. Amer. Dict. Printing, Substitute, one who works at case instead of another…. In England a substitute is called a grass hand.
II. A thing put in the place of another.
5. That which is used or stands in place of something else. Usually const. for, occas. of, † to.
Quot. 1589 is an early isolated instance.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie (Arb.), 177. Then is it called by the Greekes Hypozeuxis, we call him the substitute after his originall, and is a supplie with iteration.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., xliv. Wks. 1686, III. 513. Substitutes, and shadows of things more high in substance, and efficacy.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 165. Such as can not afford wine may have recourse to it’s substitute, beer.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., ix. 158. In every part of anatomy, description is a poor substitute for inspection.
1825. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Observ. Peel’s Sp. (1830), 38. Salaries were substitutes to fees, and in that form the plague ended.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxiv. Bearing branches of yew in their hands, as the readiest substitute for palm boughs, they marched … to hear High Mass.
1866. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc. II. 562/1. The French, whose franc or livre is the shrunken substitute of the ancient pound.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 23. This is a miserable substitute for the old Norman chapel.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), iv. 89. Till lately the natives used holes in their tables as a substitute for plates.
6. In technical use. † a. See quot. 1719. Obs.
1719–22. Quincy, Lex. Physico-Med., Substitute, is said of one Medicine put in the room of another, nearest to it in Virtue, when that cannot be had.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The Root of the great Centaureum, and sometimes Monk’s Rhubarb, are used as Substitutes to Rhapontic.
b. An artificial food-stuff intended to supply the place of a natural food; also, a cheaper article or ingredient substituted for one that is recognized or patented.
1879. Buck’s Treat. Hygiene, I. 117. Animal Substitutes for Milk. Ibid., 119. Vegetable Substitutes for Breast-milk.
1888. Times, 3 Jan., 9/5. Hereafter persons who eat butter substitutes will have to avow openly their meanness whether of spirit or of purse.
1903. Lancet, 8 Aug., 417/1. The creed of the substitute-monger is always that the substitute is better than the real thing.
c. Mech. A short section used when a full-length section is not usable.
1875. [see SUB sb. 4].
d. Chem. A new compound formed by substitution.
1852. Fownes’ Chem. (ed. 4), 599. Salicylamide … is converted by fuming nitric acid into the nitro-substitute, nitro-salicylamide.
III. 7. attrib. and Comb.: substitute-broker, one who procures a substitute for a soldier balloted for the militia; so substitute-brokerage; substitute-feeding, a method of feeding with food-substitutes; substitute-fibre Bot. (see quot.).
1863. Congress. Globe, 4 Feb., 714/3. As soon as it seemed to be understood that the Government was determined to force men into the army … these *substitute brokers made their appearance.
1865. Lowell, Reconstruction, Pr. Wks. 1890, V. 212. We have had shoddy, we have had contracts, we have had *substitute-brokerage.
1897. Trans. Amer. Pediatric Soc., IX. 15. Dewees had a clearer idea of *substitute feeding than his predecessor.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, 259. *Substitute Fibres, like libriform fibres, but a much reduced form of prosenchyma, the ‘Ersatzfasern’ of Sanio.
b. attrib. passing into adj.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 4 Oct., 7/1. A substitute resolution was submitted. Ibid. (1902), 3 March, 7/3. The … possibility of using oil instead of coal as a substitute fuel. Ibid. (1909), 15 Feb., 8/1. A substitute vessel should be provided for every vessel so withdrawn.
