utia (utia)

[Also hutia; W. Ind.] A West Indian octodont rodent of the genus Capromys, utilet (ū'til), a. [F. utile = Sp. Pg. util = It. utile, The boke of Nurture for men, seruauntes, and chyldren, with Stans puer ad mens am, newly corrected, very vtyle and nece ary vnto all youth. Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. lxxxvii. utilisable, utilisation, etc. See utilizable , etc. utilitarian (u-til-i-tā'ri-an), a. and n. [ util ity + -arian. Cf. F. utilitaire .] I. a. Consisting in or pertaining to utility; having regard to utility rather than beauty and the like; specifically, making the greatest good of the greatest number the prime consideration. See the quotations. It was in the winter of 1822-23 that I formed the plan of a little society, to be composed of young men agree ing in fundamental principles - acknowledging Utility as their standard in ethics and politics. The fact would hardly be worth mentioning, but for the circumstance that the name I gave to the society I had planned was the Utilitarian Society. It was the first time that any one had taken the title of utilitarian, and the term made its way into the language from this humble source. I did not invent the word, but found it in one of Galt's novels, "The Annals of the Parish." J. S. Mill. The pursuit of such happine is taught by the utilita rian philosophy, a phrase used by Bentham himself in 1902, and therefore not invented by Mr. J. S. Mill, as he supposed, in 1823. Encyc. Brit., II. 576. II. n. One who holds the doctrine of utilitarianism. I told my people that I thought they had more sense than to secede from Christianity to become Utilitarians ; for that it would be a confe ion of ignorance of the faith they deserted, seeing that it was the main duty inculcated by our religion to do all in morals and manners to which the newfangled doctrine of utility pretended. Galt , Annals of the Parish (1821), xxxv.