Also 5 sumpcion. [ad. L. sumptio, -ōnem, n. of action f. sumpt-, sūmĕre to take. Cf. OF. sumpcion, somption.]
† 1. The reception (of the Sacrament, of Christ in the Sacrament). Obs.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 463. When … he had said mes, befor his sumpcions, þe same duffe come agayn.
1624. F. White, Repl. Fisher, 443. By reall sumption of Christs body into the mouth … of the receiuer.
1654. Jer. Taylor, Real Pres., iii. 30. The places are exactly parallel;… both of them [are meant] of spiritual sumption of Christ.
1664. Owen, Vindic. Animad. Fiat Lux, xix. 461. Others think that the Sacrifice consists in three actions of the Priest, Consecration, Oblation and Sumption, or receiving of the Host.
2. † a. The taking of a thing as true without proof; hence, an assumption, premiss. b. The major premiss of a syllogism. (Cf. SUBSUMPTION 1.)
1572. R. T., Disc., 44. The Sumption or assumption the Pope affirmeth … and the conclusion is manifest.
1656. Stanley, Hist. Philos., V. 17. Analysis … is a sumption of the thing sought, by the consequents, (as if it were already known) to find out the truth. Ibid., 62. Of Syllogismes some are Categoricall..: Categoricall are those whose sumptions and conclusions are simple propositions.
1837–8. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xvi. (1866), I. 295. The proposition in which the relation of the major term to the middle is expressed, is the Sumption or Major Premise.
1874. Eliz. S. Phelps, in Julia W. Howe, Sex & Educ., 132. Sumption.—All women ought to be incapable of sustained activity.
