1. Not compounded; not made up of various elements; unmixed: a. Of the Deity or his essence.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, iv. 45. By these conclusions we come to another, which is, that God is not compounded. [marg.] God is single and vncompounded.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., XIII. lxxix. 326. Sufficeth vs to know he is … Vnpassiue, vnmateriall, vncompounded.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. x. § 3 (1622), 304. His vncompounded simplicitie, is the true matter of his Vnitie.
a. 1676. Hales, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. (1677), 11. Though he is but one, and one most simple uncompounded Being.
1720. Waterland, Eight Serm., 200. The proof of the Father’s being … one simple, uncompounded, undivided, intelligent Agent.
a. 1751. Bolingbroke, Philos., Wks. 1751, V. 77. Various manifestations of the infinite wisdom of one simple uncompounded being.
1867. Bp. Forbes, Explan. 39 Art., i. 10. If God is absolutely, He is simple and uncompounded.
b. Of material things, their nature or qualities.
1615. H. Crooke, Body of Man, I. xx. 32. Aristotle calleth them … Simple and vncompounded Parts, because they are not compounded of other parts.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 1. We must endevour to follow Nature in the more plain and easie ways she treads in the most simple and uncompounded bodies.
1742. H. Baker, Microsc., I. Introd. 12. In the School of Nature we must begin with … the smallest and most uncompounded Parts.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, etc., 212. The antiphlogistic theory maintains, that sulphur and meials are simple substances, or to us uncompounded bodies.
1808. J. Webster, Nat. Philos., 171. The divisions of the uncompounded colours on the spectrum.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, I. viii. (1878), 72. That the soul of man is an uncompounded substance, or indivisible essence, has never been proved.
fig. a. 1633. W. Austin, Medit. (1635), 103. Alwaies, in secret, Men are most direct, plaine, and uncompounded: when (often) in publike they play the Hypocrites.
1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Stolen Heiress, IV. It was her single uncompounded self, her self without addition that I lov’d.
c. Of ideas, abstractions, etc.
1650. Earl Monm., trans. Senault’s Man bec. Guilty, 115. Christian Eloquence is uncompounded.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. ii. § 1. Those simple Ideas; which being each in itself uncompounded, contains in it nothing but one uniform Appearance.
1713. Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., I. Wks. 1871, I. 267. Fire affects you only with one simple, or uncompounded idea.
1785. Reid, Intell. Powers, 234. To consider them as one uncompounded operation.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), IV. 16. The sensorial power in its simplest and uncompounded state.
1862. Marsh, Lect. Eng. Lang., iii. 62. It is, however, rarely the case that a simple uncompounded word so well repays the labour of investigation.
d. Const. with.
a. 1633. W. Austin, Medit. (1635), 33. They were simple men, uncompounded with the world.
1803. W. Blackburne, in Med. Jrnl., X. 463. Accumulated human effluvia … uncompounded with limose or paludous gas.
† 2. = UNCOMPOSED ppl. a. 3. Obs.
1659. Rushworth, Hist. Coll., I. 2. To keep his Majesty from declaring himself opposite to Spain in the business of Cleves and Juliers, which still remained uncompounded.
Hence Uncompoundedly adv.; -ness.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 163. It is a simple Axiome: because one thing barely, and *vncompoundedly, is referred to another.
1683. [see UNCLOTHEDLY adv.].
1653. Blithe, Eng. Improver Impr., xxi. 136. The description of it [sc. marl] is not so much in Colour … as in the Purity and *uncompoundedness of it.
1750. trans. Fénelon’s Lett. Relig. & Metaphysics, 159. It [the being infinitely perfect] would, moreover, have a supreme simplicity, uncompoundedness, which would render it infinitely more perfect than that whole collection of pretended infinities.
1835. Blackw. Mag., XXXVIII. 751. There is a oneness, a wholeness, an uncompoundedness of character in these elect instruments.
