genitor (jenitor)

[F. géniteur = Sp. Pg. genitor = It. genitore, IMG:content-2208.png:[blocks in formation] In primitive times, amongst other foul slanders spread against the Christians, one was, that they did adore the gen i tories of their priests. Bacon, Apophthegms, p. 213. genito-urinary (jeni-to-uri-nā-ri), a. [ it (al) + urinary.] Same as urogenital . - Genitourinary duct, sinus, etc. See the nouns. genitum (jen'i-tum), n.; pl. genita (-tä). [L. genitum , neut. of genitus , pp. of gignere , OL. ge nere , beget: see genital , genus .] In math ., a geo figure generated by the movement of a metrical figure generate point, line, plane, or figure. geniture (jen'i-tur), n. [OF. geniture, F. géni ture Pr. Sp. Pg. It. genitura, = Yes, he's lord of the geniture , Whether you examine it by Ptolemy's way, Or Me ahalah's, Lael, or Alkindus. Fletcher (and others ), Bloody Brother, iv. 2. This work, by merit first of fame secure, Is likewise happy in its geniture ; For since 'tis born when Charles ascends the throne, It shares at once his fortunes and its own. Dryden, To Sir Robert Howard. 2. The power of procreation; virility. E. D. It absumeth the geniture . Venner, Treatise of Tobacco, p. 416. 3. pl . The genitals. E. D. ture' genius (je'nius), n.; pl. geniuses, genii (je'nius-ez, -nii). [L. genius, the tutelar spirit r spirit of a person, spirit, inclination, wit, genius, lit. 'inborn na( nature is from the same root), lowing the plural is genii.] Some say, the Genius so Cries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die. Shak ., T. and C., iv. 4. The word genii hath by some writers been erroneously adopted for geniuses . Each is a plural of the same word genius , but in different senses. When genius in the singular means a separate spirit or demon, good or bad, the plural is genii ; when it means mental abilities, or a person eminently po e ed of these, the plural is geniuses . G. Campbell , Philos. of Rhetoric, II. iii. 3. A fairy shield your Genius made, And gave you on your natal day. Tennyson, Margaret, After the third century, even the artistic type of the guardian genius reappeared in that of the guardian angel. Lecky, Europ. Morals, I. 344. His [Shakspere's] evil angel, rhyme, yielding step by step and note by note to the strong advance of that better genius who came to lead him into the loftier path of Marlowe. Swinburne, Shakespeare, p. 32. 2. A disembodied spirit regarded as affecting human beings in certain ways, but not as connected with any one individually. The Aby in i ans, to a man, are fearful of the night, unwilling to travel, and, above all, to fight in that season, when they imagine the world is in po e ion of certain genii , averse to intercourse with men. Bruce, Source of the Nile, II. 26. 3. A type or symbol; a concrete representative, as of an influence or a characteristic; a generic exemplification. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: nius of famine. he was the very ge Shak., 2 Hen. IV., iii. 2. A golden lizard - the very genius of desolate stillne had stopped breathle upon the threshold of one cabin. Bret Harte , Baby Sylvester (Tale of the Argonauts). genius Every age has a kind of universal genius , which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies. Dryden, E ay on Dram. Poesy. No woman can despise them [ceremonies] with impunity. Their genius delights in ceremonies, in forms, in decorating life with manners, with proprieties, order, and grace. Emerson , Woman. It is this tendency on the part of the collective speakers of a language to approve or reject a proposed change according to its conformity with their already subsisting usages that we are accustomed to call by the fanciful name "the genius of a language." Whitney, Encyc. Brit., XVIII. 776. Human nature has a much greater genius for samene than for originality. Lowell , Study Windows, p. 63. 5. Exalted mental power distinguished by instinctive aptitude, and independent of tuition; tuit phenomenal capability, derived from inspiration or exaltation, for intellectual creation or expre ion; that constitution of mind or perfection of faculties which enables a person to excel others in mental perception, comprehension, discrimination, and expre ion, especially in literature, art, and science. By genius I would understand that power, or rather those powers of the mind, which are capable of penetrating into all things within our reach and knowledge, and of distinguishing their e ential differences. Fielding, Tom Jones, ix. 1. Genius always imports something inventive or creative. H. Blair, Rhetoric, iii. We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting disguised in the seeming gang of gypsies and peddlers. Emerson , Works and Days. Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is. Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 356. 6. A person having such mental power; a person of general or special intellectual faculties developed in a phenomenal degrees in this sense the plural is geniuses. It was formerly Homer was the greater genius , Virgil the better artist. Pope , Iliad, Pref. The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction. Johnson. In building that house, he won for himself, or for the E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 141. namele genius whom he set to work, a place in the history of art. Genius loci. [L.] The presiding divinity of a place; hence, the pervading spirit of a place or an institution, as of a college. See def. 1.=Syn. 5. Abilities, Gifts, Talents, Parts, Aptitude, Faculty, Capacity, Genius, Ingenuity, Cleverne , all indicate special or excellent power for doing work that is more or le intellectual. Abilities is the most general and common word for intellectual powers of the active sort, intellectual competence to do effective work; abilities are always either acquired or developed. (See ability.) Gifts are strictly endowments, or abilities regarded as conferred by the Creator. (See acquirement.) Talents comes to the same idea, its Biblical origin (Mat. xxv. 14-30) making the powers seem primarily intrusted to one for use, or at least given like money. Parts is regaining its former popularity and dignity, which it lost for a time; in the last century it stood for talents or gifts, excellent or superior endowments: as, he is a man of parts, or he is a man of good natural parts, the latter perhaps implying a failure to develop one's gifts. Aptitude is either natural bias or special fitne or skill; it may be native talent or disciplined ability. Faculty is cultivated aptitude, a highly trained power of doing something. The distinction between a faculty for and the faculty of should be noticed, the former being the kind of faculty now under consideration and the latter a bodily faculty, as the faculty of speech, hearing, etc. Capacity is receptive power: as, capacity to learn; it is a power of acquiring. "It is most remarkable in the different degrees of facility with which different men acquire a language." Sir J. Mackintosh. (See ability.) Genius is extraordinarily developed faculty, in many directions or in one; it is especially the creative power of original conceptions and combinations; it belongs with talents or gifts in seeming primarily bestowed, not acquired, and it includes capacity and aptitude in their highest forms. Ingenuity is lower than genius, in seeming cultivated, not bestowed, in seeming le superhuman or phenomenal, and often in serving le exalted purposes: as, the ingenuity of the mechanic, of the rhetorician, of the sophist. Cleverne is still lower, being a sort of mental dexterity, which is evinced in facility in learning or felicity in expre ion; it may be a merely manual dexterity. (See quotation from Cole ridge under cleverne .) It should be noticed that all these words, except parts, may be used in the singular for skill or power or natural bent in some particular direction: as, ability in debate, a talent for drawing, the gift of conversation, an aptitude for scientific research, ingenuity in argument, etc. See wisdom and astute. As we advance in life, we learn the limits of our abili ties. Froude , Short Studies on Great Subjects, II. 313. Conversation in its better part May be esteem'd a gift , and not an art. Taking with him his two Sisters, he retired into a Monastery, they into a Nunnery. This does not suit with the Genius of an English man, who loves not to pull off his Clothes till he goes to bed. Howell, Letters, I. iii. 11. Couper , Conversation, 1. 4. The man of talents po e es them like so many tools, does his job with them, and there an end; but the man of a life according to its whim. Lowell, Fireside Travels, p. 64. All my endeavors to distinguish myself were only for want of a great title and fortune, that I might be used like a lord by those who have an opinion of my parts ; whether genius right or wrong is no great matter. And so the reputation of wit and great learning does the office of a riband or a coach and six. Swift , To Bolingbroke. That his style was no easy acquisition (though, of course, the aptitude was innate), he [Dryden] himself tells us. Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 30. For, above all things, he had what we Yankees call fac ulty -the knack of doing everything. G. W. Curtis, Int. to Cecil Dreeme, p. 12. As the sum and crown of what is to be done for technical education, I look to the provision of a machinery for winnowing out the capacities and giving them scope. Huxley, Tech. Education. Sir Isaac Newton and Milton were equally men of Ge . nius. Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Go dolphin were ministers of great abilities , though they did not po e either the brilliant talents of Bolingbroke or the commanding genius of Chas am. Sir J. Mackintosh . There is also another species of genius we call ingenu or the inventive faculty, which frequently accompa 2488 -genous. [(1) Being but a Genovese, I am handled worse than had I been a Moor. Tennyson , Columbus. meantime lies idle, or fallow, to recruit its powers. Jon Bee, E ay on Samuel Foote. Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverne . Huxley , Critiques and Addre es, p. 58. genleset, genteset, n. [The form genlese is no doubt wrong; the origin of gentese is uncertain.] An old architectural term of doubtful form and meaning: said by the Oxford Glo ary to have been applied by William of Worcester apparently to the cusps or featherings in the arch of a doorway.