absinthe 
ran be intended only to modify the bitter of the worm- 
woods; tin- Mi|nnr so llavorcd is then redistilled. It is 
considered tonii.- and stomachic. Its excessive use pro- 
duces a morbid condition differing somewhat from ordi- 
nary alcoliolism. Vertigo and epileptifonn convulsions 
arc marked symptoms, and hallucination! occur without 
other symptoms of delirium tremens. The use of it pre- 
vailed at one time among the French soldiers in Algiers, 
hut it is now forbidden throughout the French army. 
The most common way of preparing it for drinking is by 
pouring it into water drop by drop or allowing it to trickle 
through a funnel with a minute opening; so prepared, it 
is called /'( li<i*nril<>, and is common in the cafes of France, 
Italy, and Switzerland. 
absinthial (ab-sin'thi-al), a. Of or pertaining 
to wormwood; hence, bitter. N. E. D. 
absinthian (ab-sin'thi-an), a. Pertaining to or 
of the nature of wormwood. 
Tempering absinthian bitterness with sweets. 
Randolph, Poems (t52), p. 00. 
absinthiate (ab-sin'thi-at), v. t. ; pret. and pp. 
iibxinlliiiitcd, ppr. absinthiuting. [< L. absinllii- 
atus, pp. adj., containing wormwood, < absin- 
thium: see absinth! urn.'] 1. To impregnate with 
wormwood. 2. To saturate with absinthe. 
Latinised English and absinthiated barrack-room mo- 
rality. The Spectator, No. 3035, p. 1154. 
absinthic (ab-sin'thik), . Of or pertaining to 
absinthium or wormwood Absinthic acid, an acid 
derived from wormwood, probably identical with succiuic 
acid. 
absinthin (ab-sin'thin), w. The crystalline bit- 
ter principle (C^oI^gO,^ of wormwood, Arte- 
m ixia Absinth i u in . 
a bsinthine (ab-sin'thin). a. Having the qualities 
of absinth or wormwood ; absinthic. Carlyle. 
absinthism (ab-sin'thizm), n. The cachectic 
state produced by the use of absinthe (which 
see). 
absinthium (ab-sin'thi-um), n. [L., <Gr. atyiv- 
diav, also aifiivBot; and atyivtiia., wormwood, of 
Pers. origin.] The common 
wormwood, Artemisia, Ab- 
sinthium, a European spe- 
cies, much cultivated for its 
bitter qualities. It contains a 
volatile oil which is the principal 
ingredient in the French liqueur 
absinthe. 
absinthol (ab-sin'thol), n. 
The chief constituent of oil 
of wormwood, CjoHigO. 
absis (ab'sis), . Same as 
apsis. 
absistt(ab-sist'), c. i. [<L. 
absistere, withdraw, \ ab, 
off, + sistcrc, stand, a re- 
duplicated form of stare, to 
stand: see state, stand.] To 
desist. 
absistencet (ab-sis'tens), . 
A standing off; a refrain- 
Aricmisia Absinthium, ing or holding back. 
Leafandflowermebranch. abg j t ( a b' S it), 11. [L. ; third 
pers. pres. subj. of abessc, 
be away.] In colleges, a leave of absence from 
commons. 
absit omen (ab'sit 6'meu). [L. ; lit., may the 
omen be away : absit, third pers. pres. subj. of 
abesse, be away ; omen, an omen : see absent 
and omen.'] May it not be ominous ! May the 
omen fail! 
absolute (ab'so-lut), a. and . [< ME. absolut, 
< OF. absolut, <J L. absolutus, complete, unre- 
stricted, absolute, pp. of absolverc, loosen from : 
see absolve.] I. a. 1. Free from every restric- 
tion j unconditional: as, the only absolute ne- 
cessity is logical necessity; absolute skepticism; 
absolute proof. 2. Perfect; complete; entire; 
possessed as a quality in the highest degree, 
or possessing the essential characteristics of the 
attribute named in the highest degree: as, ab- 
solute purity ; absolute liberty. 
What philosophical inquiry aims at is, to discover a 
proof, by subjective analysis, of a greater certainty in tin 
law, of an inviolable uniformity in nature, of what may 
properly be called an absolute uniformity, if only the word 
absolute is used as opposed to incomplete or partial, and 
not as opposed to relative or phenomenal. 
S. Hodgson, Phil, of Reflection, II. iv. 1. 
Hence 3. Perfect; free from imperfection: 
sometimes applied to persons. 
May seem as shy, as grave, as jnst, ;is n!^>,hit,- 
As Angelo. Shale., II. for M., v. 1. 
So absolute she seems, 
And in herself complete. Mi/tun, I'. I... viii. 547. 
4. Fixed ; determined ; not merely provisional ; 
irrevocable. 
O, pass not, Lord, an absolute deei er. 
Nor bind thy sentence unconditional. 
Dryden, Annus \lii-abilis. 
6. Viewed independently of other similar 
21 
things; not considered with reference to other 
similar things as standards ; not comparative 
merely: opposed to relative: as, absolute posi- 
tion; fthwhitc velocity (see below). [Careful 
writers, without an explanation, or unless the context 
makes the meaning clear, do imt use the won! in this sense ; 
so that, though it has always belonged to the word, it is 
ci'iisiiliTod as secondary-^ 
Such it codi- is that here called Absolute Ethics as dis- 
tinguished from Relative. Etliies a code the injunctions 
of which are alone to he considered as absolutely right, in 
contrast with those that are relatively right or least 
wrong; and which, as a system of ideal conduct, is to 
serve as a standard for our guidance in solving, as well as 
we can, the problems of real conduct. 
//. Spencer, Data of Ethics, 104. 
6. Unlimited in certain essential respects; 
arbitrary ; despotic : applied especially to a 
svstem of government in which the will of 
the sovereign is comparatively unhampered 
by laws or usage: as, an absolute monarchy. 
As Lord Chamberlain, I know, you are absolute by your 
office, in all that belongs to the decency and good man- 
ners of the stage. Dryden, Orig. and Prog, of Satire. 
All absolute governments, of whatever form, concen- 
trate power in one uncontrolled and irresponsible individ- 
ual or body, whose will is regarded as the sense of the 
community. Calhoitn, -Works, I. 37. 
7. Certain; infallible. 
The colour of my hair he cannot tell, 
Or answers "dark," at random, while, be sure, 
He's absolute on the figure, five or ten, 
Of my last subscription. 
Mrs. Browning, Aurora Leigh, hi. 
8. Domineering; peremptory; exacting strict 
obedience. 
Tapped on her head 
With absolute forefinger. Mrs. Browning. 
9. Ultimate ; not derived from anything else : 
as, an absolute principle. 10. Immeasurable; 
not definable by measurement ; not led up to 
by insensible gradations: as, the distinction 
between right and wrong is absolute. 
The opposition is no longer of the rigid or absolute 
nature which it was before. A. Setk. 
11. In gram. t standing out of the usual syntac- 
tical relation or construction: applied to the 
case of a noun and an adjunct in no relation 
of dependence upon the rest of the sentence, 
and defining the time or circumstances of an 
action: as, the genitive absolute in Greek, the 
ablative absolute in Latin, the locative absolute in 
Sanskrit, and the nominative absolute in English. 
Absolute alcohol. See alcohol. Absolute atmo- 
sphere, an absolute unit of pressure, equal to one million 
grams per centimeter-second square ; that is, one million 
times the pressure produced on a square centimeter by a 
force of one gram accelerated every second by a velocity 
of one centimeter per second. Absolute ego, in met- 
aph. t the non-individual, pure ego, neither subject nor 
object, which, according to the German metaphysician 
J. G. Fichte, posits the world. Absolute electrometer. 
See electrometer. Absolute equation, in astron., the 
sum of the optic and eccentric equations, the former 
being the apparent inequality of a planet's motion in its 
orbit due to its unequal distance from the earth at dif- 
ferent times, an effect which would subsist even if the 
planet's real motion were uniform, and the latter being 
the inequality due to a real lack of uniformity in the plan- 
et's motion. Absolute estate, in law, an unqualified, 
unconditional estate, entitling the owner to immediate 
and unlimited possession, and dominion. Absolute form. 
See form. Absolute identity, the metaphysical doctrine 
that mind and matter are phenomenal modifications of the 
same substance. Absolute instrument, :m instrument 
designed to measure electrical or other physical quantities 
in terms of absolute units. See unit. Absolute in- 
variant, in alg., an invariant entirely unchanged by a 
linear transformation of thequantic. Absolute magni- 
tude, magnitude without regard to sign, as plutmr minuti ; 
opposed to algebraical magnitude. Absolute measure, 
that which is based simply on the fundamental units of 
time, space, and mass, and does not involve a comparison 
with any other arbitrary quantity, especially not any gravi- 
tation-unit, whose value varies with the latitude and ele- 
vation above the sea. Thus, the absolute measure of a 
force is that of the velocity it would impart to the unit- 
mass in a unit of time. The units so derived are called ab- 
solute units; for example, the poundal or dyne. See unit. 
Absolute position, position in absolute space. Al> 
SOlute pressure, (a) That measure of pressure which 
includes atmospheric pressure. (6) Pressure expressed 
in absolute measure, commonly in absolute atmospheres 
(which see). Absolute problem, a qualitative problem 
in which it is sought to discover whether an object pos- 
sesses a given character, but not to compare different 
objects. Absolute proposition, in logic t a categorical 
proposition. Absolute reality, in RMtopA., reality not 
as it is conceived, but as it exists independently of all 
thought altout it. -Absolute reciprocant. See recipru- 
cant. Absolute space, space considered as the recep- 
tacle of things, ami not as relative to the objects in it: 
opposed to spatial extftvtton. Absolute temperature, 
temperature measured from the absolute zero of tem- 
perature (see below) on the absolute or thermodynamic 
scale of temperature, which is defined by the condition 
that the area included between two fixed adiabatic lines 
and any two isothermal lines is proportional to the differ- 
ence of temperatures for those lines on this scale. This 
absolute srjile of temperature differs by very small quan- 
tities, usually negligible, from that of an air- thermometer, 
and by the absolute temperature is often meant the tem- 
perature on the latter scale above the absolute zero. 
absolutely 
Absolute term. () In lijit, a general class-name, as 
man, as opposed to a relative or ronnotative terra, (b) 
In "/,'/-. that term nf ;m equation or quantic in which tin 
Unknown quantity does not appear, or, if it appears, has 
the exponent 0. Thus, in the equation 2 + I2a: 24=;0, 
which may also be written x? + 1'ir term 
written 24 in the first form and 24rr<> in the second 
form is called the abxolttte term. Absolute time, time 
regarded as a quasi -substance independent of the events 
it brings into relationship, that is, which occur in it. 
Absolute, true, and mathematical tin\\ in itself and its 
own nature out of relation to anything out of itself, flows 
equably, and is otherwise called duration: relative, ap- 
parent, and vulgar time is any sensible and external 
measure of duration by motion (whether accurate or in- 
equable) which the vulgar use in place of true time, as ait 
hour, a day, a month, a year. 
Sir /. Newton, Principia (trans.), Def. 8, Scholium. 
Absolute velocity, the velocity of a body with refer- 
ence not to other moving bodies, but to something im- 
movable. 
We know nothing about abnolutc velocities in space, for 
we have no standard of comparison. 
A, Daniell, Prin. of Physics, p. 15. 
Absolute zero of temperature, the lowest possible 
temperature which the nature of heat admits; the tem- 
perature at which the particles whose motion constitutes 
heat would be at rest; that temperature at which, if it 
were maintained in the refrigerator of a perfect thermo- 
dynamic engine, the engine would convert all the heat 
it should receive from its source into work. This tem- 
perature has been proved to be 273.7 degrees below the 
zero of the centigrade scale. See absolute temperature. 
= Syn. 1. Unconditional, independent. 2. Finished, 
perfect, rounded, consummate, complete. 6. Arbitrary, 
autocratic, unrestricted, irresponsible.- 7. Positive, de- 
cided, certain, sure. 8. Peremptory, imperative, dicta- 
torial. 9. Immediate, direct, self -existent. 
II. n. 1. In metaph. ; (a) That which is free 
from any restriction, or is unconditioned; 
hence, the ultimate ground of all things ; God : 
as, it is absurd to place a limit to the power 
of the Absolute. 
Being itself, and the types which follow, as well as those 
of logic in general, may be looked upon as definitions of 
the Absolute, or metaphysical definitions of God : at least 
the first and third typical form in every triad may. 
Uegel, Logic, tr. by Wallace, 85. 
The contention of those who declare the Absolute to 
be unknowable is, that beyond the sphere of knowable 
phenomena there is an Existent, which partially appears 
in the phenomena, but is something wholly removed from 
them, and in no way cognizable by us. 
G. If. Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, II. 430. 
(6) That which is perfect or complete : as, its 
beauty approaches the absolute, (c) That which 
is independent of some or all relations ; the 
non-relative. 
The term absolute is of a twofold . . . ambiguity, corre- 
sponding to the double . . . signification of the word in 
Latin. Absolutum means what is freed or loosed ; in 
which sense the absolitte will be what is aloof from rela- 
tion, comparison, limitation, condition, dependence, etc. 
In this meaning, the absolute is not opposed to the infi- 
nite. Abxolutum means finished, perfected, completed ; 
in which sense the absolute will be what is out of rela- 
tion, etc., as finished, perfect, complete, total. ... In 
this acceptation and it is that in which for myself I 
exclusively use it the absolute is diametrically opposed 
to, is contradictory of, the infinite. 
Sir W. Hamilton, Discussions (3d ed.), p. 13, foot-note. 
Whatever can be known or conceived out of all relation, 
that is to say, without any correlative being necessarily 
known or conceived along with it, is the known Absolute. 
Ferrier, Institutes of Metaph., prop. xx. 
2. In math., a locus whose protective relation 
to any two elements may be considered as con- 
stituting the metrical relation of these elements 
to One another. All measurement is made by succes- 
sive superpositions of a unit upon parts of the quantity to 
be measured. Now, in all shif tings of the standard of mea- 
surement, if this be supposed to be rigidly connected with 
an unlimited continuum superposed upon that in which 
lies the measured quantity, there will be a certain locus 
which will always continue unmoved, and to which, there- 
fore, the scale of measurement can never be applied. This 
is the absolute. In order to establish a system of mea- 
surement along a line, we first put a scale of numbers on 
the line in such a manner that to every point of the line 
corresponds one number, and to every number one point. 
If then we take any second scale of numbers related in this 
manner to the points of the line, to any number, x, of the 
first scale, will correspond just one number, y, of the sec- 
ond. If this correspondence extends to imaginary points, 
* and // will be connected by an equation linear in x and 
linear in ?/, which maybe written thus: xy + ax -+ by + 
c = 0. The scale will thus be shifted from a; = 0toy = 0or 
x = c/a. In this shifting, two points of the scale re- 
main unmoved, namely, those which satisfy the equation 
#2 + (a+ b)x + c = 0. This pair of points, which may be 
really distinct, coincident, or imaginary, constitute the 
absolute. For a plane, the absolute is a curve of the sec- 
ond order and second class. For three-dimensional space 
it is a qiiadric surface. For the ordinary system of mea- 
surement in space, producing the Euclidean geometry, the 
:ii '--"iui I- consists of two coincident planes joined along an 
imaginary circle, which circle is itself usually termed the 
absolute. See *ti stance and anharimmic ratio. Philoso- 
phies of the absolute, certain systems of metaphysics 
founded on Kant's Critique of Reason most prominently 
those of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel which, departing 
from the principles of Kant, maintain that the absolute 
is cogni/uM.'. 
absolutely (ab'so-lut -li), u<lr. Completely ; 
wholly ; independently ; without restriction, 
