differentia
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See also: différentia
English
Etymology
From Latin differentia. Doublet of difference.
Pronunciation
Noun
differentia (plural differentiae)
- (logic, semantics, taxonomy) A distinguishing feature which marks a species off from other members of the same genus.
- 1902, William James, “Lecture II: Circumscription of the Topic”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. , →OCLC, page 45:
- That character, it seems to me, should be regarded as the practically important differentia of religion for our purpose; and just what it is can easily be brought out by comparing the mind of an abstractly conceived Christian with that of a moralist similarly conceived.
- 1928, E. M. Edghill, Categories, translation of original by Aristotle:
- If genera are different and co-ordinate, their differentiae are themselves different in kind. Take as an instance the genus ‘animal’ and the genus ‘knowledge’. ‘With feet’, ‘two-footed’, ‘winged’, ‘aquatic’, are differentiae of ‘animal’; the species of knowledge are not distinguished by the same differentiae.
- 2017, Kory Stamper, Word By Word, Vintage, published 2018, page 116:
- In the case of a word like “surfboard,” the differentiae seem pretty clear. How is this board different from all other boards?
See also
Interlingua
Noun
differentia (plural differentias)
Latin
Etymology
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /dif.feˈren.ti.a/,
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /dif.feˈren.t͡si.a/,
Noun
differentia f (genitive differentiae); first declension
Declension
First-declension noun.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | differentia | differentiae |
| genitive | differentiae | differentiārum |
| dative | differentiae | differentiīs |
| accusative | differentiam | differentiās |
| ablative | differentiā | differentiīs |
| vocative | differentia | differentiae |
Descendants
- → Catalan: diferència
- → Czech: diference
- → Galician: diferenza
- → Italian: differenza
- → Occitan: diferéncia
- → Old French: difference
- → French: différence
- → Middle English: difference
- English: difference
- → Portuguese: diferença
- → Romanian: diferență
- → Spanish: diferencia
Participle
differentia
References
- “differentia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “differentia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- differentia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- differentia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.