a. [ad. Gr. τελικ-ός final, f. τέλος end.]
1. Gram. Of a conjunction or clause: Expressing end or purpose.
1846. in Worcester (citing Prof. Stuart).
1856. Alford, Grk. Test., III. 90, note/2. [In Eph. ii. 9 ἴνα μή τις καυχήσηται] ἴνα has in matter of fact its strictest telic sense. With God, results are all purposed.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 507, note. St. John’s use of ἴνα is far wider than that of classical writers. It often loses its telic sense (‘in order that’) and becomes simply ekbatic or explanatory, as in Luke i. 43, John xv. 13.
1904. Sat. Rev., 9 April, 460/1. It expresses a purpose or intention, and is therefore telic.
2. Directed or tending to a definite end; purposive.
1889. Mivart, Truth, xxv. 438. The telic series of cyclical changes which are characteristic of all duly organized living bodies.
1903. L. F. Ward, Pure Sociology, II. v. 94. All causes are either efficient, conative, or telic. Ibid., II. vi. 97. The telic or final cause is not a force,… but it utilizes efficient causes in a manner wholly its own, and thus produces effects.
1906. Dealey & Ward, Text-bk. Sociology, § 280. Civilisation chiefly consists in the exercise of the telic faculty.
