commissionaire (sion as shon)

[Fr.] A me enger, belonging to a body or corps enrolled in London, England, whose busine is to carry mes sages or execute commi ions. 5. A work intrusted to any person to be carried consisted originally of soldiers wounded in the Cri out. IMG:content-0298.png:[blocks in formation] The Society of Commi ionaires was founded in February, 1859, by Captain Edward Walter, and mean war or in the Indian mutinies. ( Haydn , . com-mi ion-al, *com-mi ion-a-rý (sion shồn), a . [Eng. commi ion; -al, -ary .] AP 6. The instructions given to any person or persons pointed by a commi ion or warrant; commi ion ing. for the carrying out of any busine or charge. "The two amba adors departed together, but with very different commi ions."- Macaulay : Hist . Eng ., ch, xii. Neve: Lives of Abps ., i. 201. "By virtue of the king's letters commi ional."-Le pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, pot Syrian , œë; ey = IMG:content-0299.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0300.png:[blocks in formation] (c) Great transverse commi ure of the cerebellum : For def. see extract. "The fibers of the pons are always developed in the direct ratio of the hemispheres of the cerebellum Hence these fibers must be regarded as especially belong- ing to the cerebellum, and as serving, whatever other office they may perform, to connect the hemispheres of opposite sides. They constitute, therefore, the great transverse commi ure of the cerebellum, and are to the hemispheres of that organ what the corpus callosum is to those of the brain."- Todd & Bowman: Physiol. Anat., vol. i., ch. x., р. 274. (d) Grey or Gray commi ure : The same as Mid- dle commi ure (q. v.). (g) Soft commi ure: The same as Middle com- mi ure (q. v.). (h) Superior longitudinal commi ure : Anat . A commi ure inclosed in the internal convolution overhanging the corpus callosum. ( Ibid . , p. 286.) which has a cribriform appearance, from being per- forated by numerous blood-ve els." --Todd & Bowman: Physiol. Anat . , vol. i., ch. x., p. 206. (2) Commi ures of the spinal cord: (a) Anterior white commi ure of the spinal cord : Anat .: A transverse portion of white substance connecting the opposite sides of the anterior median fi ure of the spinal cord. (b) Posterior gray commi ure of the spinal cord : Anat.: A transverse portion of gray matter con- necting the opposite sides of the posterior median fi ure in the spinal cord. IMG:content-0301.png:[blocks in formation] (2) To put in or consign to any place [II. 1]. "At least I'll dig a hole within the ground, And to the trusty earth commit the sound." Dryden: Satire of Persius , i. 242-3. *(3) To commi ion; to appoint or depute. *(4) To put or bring together in hostility or for a contest. (A Latinism.) Anat.: A round bundle of white fibers placed immediately in front of the anterior pillars of the fornix, and cro ing between the corpora striata of 2. Figuratively : the cerebrum. It marks the anterior boundary of (1) To bind, to pledge; to place in the position or the ventricle. condition of one pledged or bound to any particular may in some companies be slightly mentioned "The anterior commi ure is a remarkable bundle of act or line of action (generally used reflexively). the other." road which pa es from one hemispherech without committing the speaker.-Mi Aikin : To Dr. IMG:content-0302.jpg:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0303.png:[blocks in formation] 1. Law : To send to prison; to imprison. (1) Absolutely : "I gave bold way to my authority, And did commit you." learn so as to retain anything in the memory. "They who are desirous to commit to memory, might have ease." -2 Maccabees ii. 25. ment."-Lord Clarendon: E ays; Of Repentance. 3. An engagement or contract to which one has committed or bound one's self. (1.) The act of committing to prison. (2) The state of being committed to prison. (3) A warrant or order of committal. IMG:content-0304.png:[graphic] IMG:content-0305.jpg:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0306.png:[blocks in formation] 1. The act of perpetrating or doing; commi ion. 2. The act of intrusting or delivering in charge. II. Law : The act of sending to prison. com-mit-tõr, s. [COMMITTER.] IMG:content-0307.png:[ocr errors] IMG:content-0308.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0309.png:[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors] goods, merchandise, and wares: Crabb thus discriminates between commodity, Commodity is employed only for articles of the first nece ity; it is the source of comfort and object of industry: goods is applied to everything belonging to tradesmen, for which there is a stipulated value; they are sold retail, and are the proper objects of trade: mer- chandise applies to what belongs to merchants; it is the object of commerce: wares are manufactured and may be either goods or merchandise : a country merchant his merchandise; a manufacturer his wares." (Crabb: Eng. Synon.) wire, two or three stories high, fitted for the head, or covered with tiffany or other thin silks." - Ladies ' Dict. (1694). 2. A chest of drawers; a bureau; a night-stool. "Old commodes of rudely carved oak, a discolored gla in a japan frame, a ponder- ous arm-chair of Elizabeth an fashion, ."-Bulwer: *com-mōde', a. geo us, useful, convenient, accommodating. "So, sir, am I not very commode to you?" Cibber: Provoked Husband , iv. *com-mō de-lỹ, adv. [Eng. commode; -ly.] Conveniently. côm-mô-đi-ous, a . [Low Lat. commodiosus ; Lat, commodus: com con; modus a measure, a mode.] 1. Suitable, fit, advantageous, useful; suited to its purpose. "There in commodious shelter may we rest." Words worth: Excursion, bk. iii. Crabb thus discriminates between commodious and convenient : "Both these terms convey the idea of what is calculated for the pleasure of a person. Commodious regards the physical condition, and dious which suits one's bodily ease; that is conven- convenience the mental feelings. That is commo ient which suits one's purposes house, a chaires commodious; a time, an opportunity, a season, or the arrival of any person, is convenient . A noise incommodes; the staying or going of a person may inconvenience. A person wishes to sit commodiously , and to be conveniently situated for witne ing any spectacle." (Crabb: Eng. Synon.) 2. Suitably; in a manner adapted to a particular com-mô-đi-oŭs-ne , s . [Eng commodious ; Temple. 2. Roomine . IMG:content-0310.png:[blocks in formation] commo ditas , from commodus convenient, fit.] *1. Advantage, profit, accommodation, conven- IMG:content-0311.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0312.png:[merged small][ocr errors] 5. Of inferior character or quality. (1) Of persons: IMG:content-0313.png:[blocks in formation] The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia IMG:content-0315.png:[blocks in formation] II. Technically: 1. Grammar: (1) Applied to nouns: Capable of being applied to all the individuals of a cla , being common to them all, and not restricted in its application to any one or more in particular. It is opposed to Proper (q. v.). (2) Applied to gender: Nouns which admit of being applied, without inflexion, to things of either sex, as bird , friend , parent , ., are said to be of the common gender. *(3) Applied to verbs: According to Johnson, "such verbs as signify both action and pa ion, are called common, as aspernor = I despise or am despised." 2. Logic : Applied to terms or names, in opposition to individual , singular , or proper . " Common terms, therefore, are called predicables' (viz., affirmatively-predicable), from their capability of being affirmed of others: a singular-term, on the contrary, may be the subject of a proposition, but never the predicate, unle it be of a negative proposition (as, e. g., the first-born of Isaac was not Jacob); or, unle the subject and predicate be only two expre ions for the same individual object, as in some of the above instances." (Whateiy: Elements of Logic, bk. i., § 6.) 3. Anat .: In the same sense as A. 1. Nerves of common sensation: (For definition see extract.) "The distinction which has been made between nerves of common and of special sensation , is indicated by the fact, that while a stimulus to the former causes pain, that to the latter gives rise to a peculiar or special sensation, as of light, sound, or taste." Todd & Bowman : Physiol. Anat., vol. i., ch. ix., р. 233. 4. Music: [COMMON-CHORD, COMMON-TIME.] B. As adv.: Commonly, more than common = more than is common. "I am more than common tall."- Shakesp.: As You Like It, i. 3. IMG:content-0316.png:[blocks in formation] 5. Tenants in common: IMG:content-0317.png:[blocks in formation] in the primitive sense of these words, the first three are not strictly synonymous with the last: monsters are common in Africa; vulgar reports are little to be relied on. refined: vulgar to polite and cultivated: ordinary to the distinguished: mean to the noble; a common mind busies itself with common objects; vulgar habits are easily contracted from a slight intercourse with vulgar people; an ordinary person is seldom a ociated with elevation of character; and a mean appearance is a certain mark of a degraded condition, if not of a degraded mind." (Crabb: Eng . Synon.) Common is opposed to rare and IMG:content-0318.png:[blocks in formation] common barretor. [BARRETOR.] common barretry Law: [BARRETRY.]