nefandous 
nefandous (no-fan'dus), a. [< L. ncfandus, im- 
pious, execrable, < ne, not, + fandus, ger. of 
fan, speak: see fable."] Impious; abominable; 
very shocking to the general sense of justice 
or religion. 
He likewise belch'd out most nefandous blasphemies 
against the God of heaven. C. Mather, Mag. Chris., vi. 7. 
He had been brought very close to that immane and ne- 
fandous Burke-and-Hare business which made the blood 
of civilization run cold in the year 1828. 
0. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 44. 
nefarious (ne-fa'ri-us), a. [= Sp. Pg. It. ne- 
fario, < L. nefarius, impious, abominable, < ne- 
fas, something not according to divine law, 
impious, execrable, abominable, or wicked, a 
wicked deed, < ne, not, + fas, lawful: see fasti. 
Cf. nefast.] Wicked in the extreme; heinous; 
abominable; atrociously sinful or villainous; 
detestably vile. 
To flourish o'er nefarious crimes, 
And cheat the world. 
S. Butler, To the Memory of Du Val. 
They grope their dirty way to petty gains, 
While poorly paid for their nefarious pains. 
Crabbe, Works, II. 61. 
=Syn. Nefarious, Execrable, Flagitious, Enormous, Villain- 
ous, Abominable, Horrible, atrocious, infamous, iniquitous, 
impious, dreadful, detestable. The first seven words char- 
acterize extreme wickedness. As with the words under 
atrocious, when loosely used they approach each other in 
meaning ; hence only their primary meanings will be in- 
dicated here: nefarious, unspeakably wicked, impious; 
execrable, worthy of execration or cursing, utterly hate- 
ful ; flagitious, proceeding from burning desire (as lust), 
grossly or brutally wicked or vile ; enormous, not com- 
mon in this sense except with a strong noun, as enormous 
wickedness, but sometimes meaning wicked beyond com- 
mon measure ; villainous, worthy of a villain, greatly crim- 
inal or capable of great crimes ; abominable, loathsome in 
wickedness, the object of a religious detestation ; horrible, 
exciting horror, mental agitation, or shrinking ; shocking : 
it is less common as applied to moral conduct. See aban- 
doned, atrocious, criminal, and irreligious. 
nefariously (ne-fa'ri-us-li), adv. In a nefari- 
ous manner; with extreme wickedness; abomi- 
nably. 
nefariousness (ne-fa'ri-us-nes), n. The quality 
or state of being nefarious. Bailey, 1727. 
nefast (ne-fasf), a. [= Sp. Pg. It. nefasto, < 
L. nefastim, impious, unlawful, irreligious, prop, 
unlawful (dies nefasti, days on which judgment 
could not be pronounced or public assemblies 
held), < ne, not, + fastus, lawful: see fasti. Cf. 
iiefarious.'] Detestably vile; wicked; abomi- 
nable. [Rare.] 
Monsters so nefast and flagitious. Bulwer, Caxtons, x. 1. 
negt, " An obsolete form of nag 2 . 
negant (ne'gant), n. [= Sp. negante, < L. ne- 
gan(t-)n, ppr. of negare, deny: see negate.] One 
who denies. [Rare or technical.] 
The aftirmante . . . were almost treble so many as were 
the netjanti. 
W. Kingsmill, quoted in Strype's Cranmer, ii. 4. (Davies.) 
negart, . An obsolete spelling of nigger?. 
Minsiieu. 
negate (ne'gat), v. t. ; pret. and pp. negated, 
ppr. negating. [< L. negatus, pp. of negare (> It. 
negare = Pg. Sp. negar = F. nier), deny, refuse, 
decline, reduced from "nec-aiare (or a similar 
form), < nee, not, nor (contr. of neque, nor, < ne, 
not, + -que, a generalizing suffix) (a negative 
also used as a prefix in negligere, neglect, and 
negotiant, business: see neglect and negotiate), 
+ aierc, say, a defective verb, used chiefly in 
pres. aio, etc., I say, impf. aiebam, etc., I said 
(= Gr. i/pl, I say, a defective verb, used only in 
pres. TJU'I, I say, impf. ?/v, I said, % he said), 
perhaps = Skt. -\/ah, speak. Hence, in comp., 
denegare, > ult. E. deny : see deny and denay.~] 
To deny; negative; make negative or null. 
[Rare or technical.] 
At the cost of negating . . . his past opinions. 
Proc. Sac. Psych. Research, Dec. 14, 1885, p. 274. 
But desire for negation is still not aversion, until pain- 
fulness is added. The object to be neyatcd must be felt 
to be painful, and may also be so thought of. 
F. H. Bradley, Mind, XIII. 22. 
negatedness (ne'ga-ted-nes), n. The state of 
being negated or denied. 
Real pain is the feeling of the negatedness of the self, 
and therefore, as such, it is bad. 
F. H. Bradley, Ethical Studies, p. 118. 
negation (ne-ga'shon), n. [= F. negation = Sp. 
negacion = Pg. negaqao = It. negazione, < L. 
negatio(n-), denial, < negare, pp. negatw, deny: 
see negate.] 1. The act of denying or of nega- 
tiving; the opposite of the act of affirming. 
Descartes was naturally led to regard error as more or 
less a negation, or rather privation. 
Veitch, Introd. to Descartes's Method, p. lix. 
By his principle, that " determination is negation," Spi- 
noza is driven, in spite of himself, to dissolve everything 
3958 
in the dead abstraction of substance, in a pure identity 
that has no difference in itself, and from which no differ- 
ence can by any possibility be evolved. 
E. Caird, Philos. of Kant, p. 48. 
The affirmation of universal evolution is in itself the 
negation of an "absolute commencement" of anything. 
H. Spencer, Mil. of Biol., App., p. 482. 
Japanese art is not merely the incomparable achieve- 
ment of certain harmonies in colour ; it is the negation, 
the immolation, the annihilation of everything else. 
Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLI1I. 746. 
2. A denial; a declaration that something is 
not, or has not been, or will not be. 
Our assertions and negations should be yea and nay; 
whatsoever is more than these is sin. D. Rogers. 
It is mere cowardice to seek safety in negations. 
George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, T. 8. 
3. The absence of that which is positive or 
affirmative; blankness; emptiness. 
I hate the black negation of the bier. 
Tennyson, Ancient Sage. 
Conversion by negation, in logic. See contraposition. 
negationist (ne-ga'shon-ist), n. [< negation + 
-ist.] One who denies or expresses negation ; 
especially, one who simply denies beliefs com- 
monly held without asserting an opposite view. 
We thus perceive that the Skeptic is not the denier or 
dogmatic Negationist he is commonly held to be. 
J. Owen, Evenings with Skeptics, Pref., p. vii. 
negative (ueg'a-tiv), a. and n. [= F. negatlf 
= Pr. negatiu = Sp. Pg. It. negative, < L. nega- 
tives, that denies, negative, < negare, pp. nega- 
tus, deny: gee negate.'] I. a. 1. Expressing 
or containing denial or negation: opposed to 
affirmative : as, a negative proposition. 
I sale againe that I weigh not two chips which way the 
wind bloweth, bicause I see no inconuenience that may 
insue either of the afllrmatiue or negatiue opinion. 
Slanihurst, Descrip. of Ireland. 
We have negative names, which stand not directly for 
positive ideas, but for their absence, such as insipid, si- 
lence, nihil, &c., which words denote positive ideas, e. g. 
taste, sound, being, with a signification of their absence. 
Locke, Human Understanding, II. viii. 5. 
2. Expressing or containing refusal ; contain- 
ing or implying the answer "No" to a request: 
as, a negative answer. 3. Characterized by the 
omission or absence of that which is affirma- 
tive or positive: as, a negative attitude; nega- 
tive goodness. 
There is another way ... of denying Christ, which is 
negative, when we do not acknowledge and confess him. 
South, Sermons. 
The negative standard of goodness, which results at best 
in abstaining from evil rather than in doing good, and is 
only too apt to degenerate into something very like hy- 
pocrisy. H. N. Oxenham, Short Studies, p. 34. 
Christ would never hear of negative morality; "thou 
shalt" was ever his word, with which he superseded "thou 
shall not" R. L. Stevenson, Scribner's Mag., IV. 765. 
4. Having the power of stopping or restraining 
by refusing assent or concurrence ; imposing a 
veto. 
Denying me any power of a negative voice as king, they 
are not ashamed to seek to deprive me of the liberty of 
using my reason with a good conscience. /:/;,,, Basilike. 
5. In photog., showing the lights and shades in 
nature exactly reversed : as, a negative picture ; 
a negative plate. See II., 5. 6. Measured or 
reckoned in the opposite direction to that which 
is considered as positive; neutralizing the posi- 
tive: as, a debt is negative property Negative 
abstraction, argument, conception, condition, etc. 
See the nouns. Negative crystal. See crystal and re- 
fraction. Negative electricity, (a) According toFrank- 
lin's theory, that state of bodies in which they are deprived 
of some part of the electricity which they naturally con- 
tain, (6) Electricity developed by friction on resinous sub- 
stances, as by rubbing sealing-wax with silk or flannel ; 
resinous electricity. Negative evidence, eyepiece, 
image. See the nouns. Negative exponent. See pow- 
er. Negative index of a logarithm. See logarithm. 
Negative plate, the metal or equivalent placed in op- 
position to the positive in the voltaic battery. The nega- 
tive may be coke, carbon, silver, platinum, or copper; the 
positive is usually zinc. Negative pole of a magnet, the 
south-seeking pole. See magnet. Negative pole of a 
voltaic battery, the extremity of the wire connected with 
the positive plate. Negative power. See power. Neg- 
ative prescription, in Scots lau\ See prescription. 
Negative proposition, in logic, a proposition which de- 
nies agreement between the subject and its predicate. 
Negative quantities. See quantity. Negative rad- 
ical, in chem., a radical which is acid or electronegative 
in relation to the element or radical with which it is com- 
pared. Negative result of an experimental inquiry, 
the conclusion that nothing remarkable happens under 
the circumstances inquired into. Negative servitude, 
sign, etc. See the nouns. Negative welL Same as 
absorbiny-wett (which see, under absorb). 
II. n.\. A proposition expressing a negation; 
a negative proposition. 
Of negatives we have the least certainty ; they are usually 
hardest, and many times impossible to be proved. 
Tillotson. 
The positive and the negative are set before the mind for 
its choice, and it chooses the negative. 
Edwards, Freedom of the Will, i. 1. 
negativity 
Of a life of completed development, of activity with the 
end attained, we can only speak or think in negatives, and 
thus only can we speak or think of that state of being in 
which, according to our theory, the ultimate moral good 
must consist T. II. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 172. 
2. A term or word which expresses negation or 
denial. 
If your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why 
then, the worse for my friends and the better for my foes. 
Shak., T. N., T. 1. 24. 
3. The right or power of refusing assent; a ve- 
to ; also, the power of preventing. 
Their Gouerment Is an Anarchie ; euery one obeying and 
commanding, the meanest person amongst them hauing a 
Negatiue in all their consultations. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 528. 
This man sits calculating varietie of excuses how he may 
grant least ; as if his whole strength and royaltie were 
plac'd in a meer negative. Milton, Eikonoklastes, xi. 
It was not stipulated that the King should give up his 
negative on acts of Parliament. 
Macavlay, Hallam's Const. Hist. 
4. That side of a question which denies what 
the opposite side affirms ; also, a decision or an 
answer expressive of negation : as, the question 
was determined inthe negative. 5. Inphotog., 
a photographic image on glass or other suitable 
medium, in which the lights and shades are the 
opposite of those in nature. The negative is used 
chiefly as a plate from which to print positive impressions 
on paper or other material. Its image presents natural 
high lights as more or less opaque, and diminishes in 
opacity by delicate gradations to the deepest shadows, 
which should be represented by unstained or transparent 
film. 
6. Electricity like that developed by friction on 
resinous substances. See electricity. 7. In 
elect., the negative plate of a voltaic element; 
the metal or equivalent placed in opposition to 
the positive in the voltaic battery. Double neg- 
ative, a sign of negation repeated. In English and Latin, 
and in Sanskrit, such a double negative is equivalent to an 
affirmative, destroying the negation, but in most languages 
and in vulgar speech it is not Negative nothing. See 
nothing. Negative pregnant, in law, a negation Imply- 
ing an affirmation favorable to the adversary, or admitting 
of such an implication : as, in pleading, if one alleged to 
have done a thing denies that he did it in manner and 
form as alleged, which Is taken as admitting that he did 
It in some other manner. 
negative (neg'a-tiv), v. t. ; pret. and pp. nega- 
tived, ppr. negativing. [< negative, a.] 1. To 
deny, as a statement or proposition ; affirm the 
contradictory of; contradict; negate. 
Although well armed, she is not, I think, a ship of war. 
Her rigging, build, and general equipment all negative a 
supposition of this kind. Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle. 
2. To disprove ; prove the contrary of. 
The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not 
negative the existence of miracles. Paley. 
3. To refuse assent to; refuse to enact or sanc- 
tion; veto. 
The proposal was negatived by a small majority. 
Andrews, Anecdotes, p. 169. 
We passed a bill . . . two years ago, but it was nega- 
tived by the President. 
D. Webster, Speech, Senate, March 18, 1834. 
4. In gram., to modify by a negative particle ; 
alter by the substitution of a negative for a 
positive word. 
negative-bath (neg'a-tiv-bath), w. 1. In pho- 
tog., the silver solution or sensitizing-bath used 
in the wet process to sensitize collodioni/.ed 
plates. 2. The glass holder for the silver solu- 
tion used in sensitizing photographic plates in 
the wet process. 
negatively (neg'a-tiv-li), adv. In a negative 
manner, (a) With or by denial or refusal : as, to answer 
negatively. (6) By means of negative reasoning; indirect- 
ly: opposed to positively. 
I shall show what this image of God in man is, negative- 
ly, by showing wherein it does not consist, and positively, 
by showing wherein it does. South. 
(c) With negative electricity; by friction on some resinous 
substance. 
Two negatively electrified bodies repel one another. 
S. P. Thompson, Elect, and Slag., p. 6. 
negativeness (neg'a-tiv-nes), n. The state or 
quality of being negative, in any sense of that 
word. 
negative-rack (neg'a-tiv-rak), n. In photog., 
a grooved skeleton frame in which plates are 
supported on edge with one cornerlowest, either 
to drain or for convenient storage or use. 
negativism (neg'a-tiy-izm), n. [< net/utirc + 
-ism."] The stand-point assumed, or the views 
held, by a negationist. 
A philosophy of most radical free thought "is present- 
ed," that is no negativism, no agnosticism, and no meta- 
physical mysticism. Pop. Sci. Mo., XXXV. 787. 
negativity (neg-a-tiv'i-ti), n. [= F. iK-n 
as negative + -ity,] Same as neaativcness. Imp. 
Diet. 
