a. (sb.) [f. Gr. τεχνικ-ός (see TECHNIC) + -AL.]
1. Of a person: Skilled in or practically conversant with some particular art or subject. rare.
1617. Hales, Serm., 2 Pet. iii. 16. 19. Not to think themselues sufficiently provided vpon their acquaintance with some Notitia, or systeme of some technicall divine.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, III. ii. 81. The managers … not being technical men.
† 2. Of a thing: Skillfully done or made: cf. TECHNIC a. 2. Obs. rare–0.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Technical (technicus), artificial, cunning, done like a workman. [Perhaps never in Eng.]
3. Belonging or relating to an art or arts; appropriate or peculiar to, or characteristic of, a particular art, science, profession, or occupation; also, of or pertaining to the mechanical arts and applied sciences generally, as in technical education, or technical school.
Technical difficulty, a difficulty arising in connection with the method of procedure (esp. legal). † Technical verse, a verse intended to assist in memorizing something connected with a particular subject: cf. MEMORIA TECHNICA (obs.).
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Technical verses are commonly composed in Latin: they are generally wretched ones, and often barbarous; but … utility is all that is aimed at.
1739. Works Learned, I. 139. He makes use of some Technical Lines or Verses.
1755. Johnson, Dict., Pref. Of the terms of art I have received such as could be found either in books of science or technical dictionaries.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 714. Torrington had … been sent to the Tower…. A technical difficulty had arisen about the mode of bringing him to trial.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xx. (1876), 265. Technical education, that is, the acquisition of scientific method and a knowledge of the principles and practice of the applied sciences.
1909. Kelly’s Directory of Oxf., 128/2. The City of Oxford Municipal Technical Schools … are secondary and technical schools under the regulation of the Board of Education…. They consist of chemical and physical laboratories and lecture rooms, workshops, art rooms, and class rooms.
b. spec. said of words, terms, phrases, etc., or of their senses or acceptations; as, the technical terms of logic; the technical sense of ‘subject’ in logic.
[1634. Jackson, Creed, VII. xxviii. § 3. ‘The mercy of the Lord’ or of ‘the word of God’ is τὶ τεχνικὸν, that is a word or term whose full importance cannot be had from any ordinary lexicon, unless it be such as is proper unto divinity.]
a. 1652. [implied in TECHNICALLY adv.].
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., The Terms of Art are commonly called Technical Words.
1739. Labelye, Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge, p. iv. Avoiding as much as possible all technical Terms.
1778. Jefferson, Autobiog., App., Wks. 1859, I. 146. Preserving … the very words of the established law, wherever their meaning had been … rendered technical by usage.
1809. Syd. Smith, Charac. Fox, Wks. 1859, I. 153/1. In a science like law there must be technical phrases, known only to professional men.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 420. No former philosopher had ever carried the use of technical terms to the same extent as Hegel.
c. transf. Of an author, a treatise, etc.: Using technical terms; treating a subject technically.
1779. Mirror, No. 48, ¶ 1. I have since been endeavouring to make it a little less technical, in order to fit it more for general perusal.
a. 1832. Mackintosh, Rev. of 1688, Wks. 1846, II. 295. The Crown lawyers…. Powis was feebly technical, and Williams was offensively violent.
1896. N. & Q., 8th Ser. IX. 160/2. [The book] is somewhat too technical for any one who is not a botanist.
d. Technically so called or regarded; that is such from the technical point of view.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 20. Permission for soldiers to retreat with technical honour.
1868. [cf. TECHNICALLY].
B. sb. In pl. Technical terms or points; technicalities.
1790. Bystander, 352. Prone to … scold in technicals which they know not how to apply.
1825. Eng. Life, II. 254. The cramped and barbarous technicals of law.
1863. D. G. Mitchell, My Farm of Edgewood, 236. The latter has a wall about him of self-confidence, ignorance of technicals.
Hence Technicalism, technical style, method, or treatment; addiction to technicalities; Technicalist, one versed in or addicted to technicalities; Technicalize v. trans., to make technical, give a technical meaning to; Technicalness, the quality of being technical, technicality.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 80. Such ingenuity is not wanting to English-bred *technicalism.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, Pref. 111. Not frozen-up in dry technicalism, but dealing with the human reality attaching to an important Institution of free men.
1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), II. 415. Not altogether a secret to the *technicalists.
1884. Times, 9 Feb. Every technicalist takes too narrow a view.
1852. Lewis, Methods Obs. & Reason. Politics, I. 78. Words current in the language of ordinary life … were (if we may be allowed the expression) *technicalized.
1828–32. Webster, *Technicalness.
