460 A T 
to fall; which never meet, incoincident. ] Properly a right 
line, which approaches continually nearer and nearer to 
fome curve, whole afymptote it is faid to be, infuch fort, 
that, when they are both indefinitely produced, they are 
nearer together than by any adignable finite diftance ; or 
it may be confidered as a tangent to the curve when con¬ 
ceived to be produced to an infinite difiance. Two curves 
are alfo faid to be afymptotical, when they thus continu¬ 
ally approach indefinitely to a coincidence,; thus, two pa¬ 
rabolas, placed with their axes in the fame right line, are 
afymptotes to one another. Of lines of the fecond kind, 
or curves of the firft kind, that is, the conic fe&ions, only 
the hyperbola lias afymptotes, which are two in number. 
All curves of the fecond kind have at lead one afymptote ; 
but they may have three. And all curves of the third 
kind may have four afymptotes. The conchoid, cilToid, 
and logarithmic curve, though not reputed geometrical 
curves, have each one afymptote. And the branch or 
leg of a curve that has an afymptote, is faid to be of the 
hyperbolic kind. See Geometr v and Conic Sections. 
ASYMPTO'TICAL,a(f/. Curves are faid to be afymp¬ 
totical, when they continually approach, without a poltl- 
bility of meeting. 
ASYN'DETON, f. [ofapriv. Q VV] with, and ho-p. o ? , 
a band; or a, without, and c-oJet©', bound together.] A 
figure in grammar, implying the want of conjunctions in 
a fentence, or a figure when commas arq put inllead of co¬ 
pulatives; as, veni, vidi, vici , i. e. I came, 1 faw, I con¬ 
quered; the conjunction & being omitted. Alyndeton 
hands cppofed to polyfyndeton, where the copulatives are 
multiplied. 
ASYN'THES,/! [fromaneg. and avvQtu, to occur.] 
Unaccuftomed ; unexpected. 
AT, prep, [at, Sax. ] At, before a place, notes the near- 
nefs of the place; as, A man is at the houfe before he is 
in it.—This cudom continued among many, to fay their 
prayers at fountains. Stillingfcct. — At, before a word dig¬ 
nifying time, notes the co-exiltence of the time with the 
event: the word time is fometimes included in the adjec¬ 
tive ; we commonly fay at a minute, at an hour, on a day, 
in a month.—We thought it at the very fir'll a fign of cold 
affedtion. Hooker. — At the fame time that the (form beats 
upon the w'hole fpecies, we are falling foul upon one ano¬ 
ther. Addifon. — At, before a cafual w'ord, dignifies nearly 
the fame as with, noting that the event accompanies, or 
immediately lucceeds, the action of the caufe: 
O fir, when he (hall hear of your approach, 
If that young Arthur be not gone already, 
Ev’n at this news he dies. Shakfpeare. 
At, before a fuperlative adjective, implies in the fate-, as, 
at left, in the hate of mod perfection, See. —Conlider any 
man as to his perfonal powers, they are not great; for, at 
greated, they mnft (fill be limited. South. —We bring into 
the world with us a poor needy uncertain life, fliort at the 
longed, and unquiet at the bed. Temple. — At, before a 
J ierfon, is feldom ufed otherwife than ludicroufly; as, He 
onged to be at him, that is, to attack him. At, before a 
fubdantive, fometimes lignifies the particular condition or 
circumdances of the perfon; as, at peace, in a date of 
peace.—It bringeth the treafure of a realm into a few 
hands: for the ufurer being at certainties, and others at 
uncertainties, at the end of the game mod of the money 
will be in the box. Bacon. —Wife men are fometimes over¬ 
borne, when they are taken at a difadvantage. Collier. — 
At, before a fubdantive, fometimes marks employment or 
attention.—We find fome arrived at that fottilhnefs, as to 
own roundly what they would be at. South. 
The creature’s at his dirty work again. Pope. 
At is fometimes the fame asfumftcd with,ether the French a: 
Infufe his bread with magnanimity, 
And make him naked foil a man at arms, Shakefpcare. 
At fometimes notes the place where any thing is, or 
A T A 
He that in tracing the velfels began at the heart, though he 
thought not at all of a circulation, yet made he the fird true 
dep towards the difeovery. Grew.—At fometimes dgnifies 
in immediate confequence of.—Impeachments at the pro- 
fecution of the houfe of commons, have received their 
determinations in the houfe of lords. Hale.—At marks 
fometimes the effect proceeding from an aft: 
Red in this tomb, rais’d at thy lui (band’s cod. Dry den. 
At fometimes is nearly the fame as in, noting dtuation; as. 
He was at the bottom, or top, of the hill. At fometimes 
marks the occafion, like on: 
Others, with more helpful care, 
Cry’d out aloud, Bev.’ are, brave youth, beware! 
At this be turn’d, and, as the bull drew near, 
Shunn’d, and receiv’d him on his pointed fpear. Dryden. 
At fometimes feems to dgnify in the power of, or obedient to: 
But thou of all the kings, Jove’s care below, 
Art lead at my command, and mod my foe. Dryden. 
At fometimes notes the relation of a man to an aftion.—He 
who makes pleafure the vehicle of health, is a doCforai: it 
in good earned. Collie>-.—At fometimes imports the man¬ 
ner of an aclion.—One warms you by degrees, the other 
fets you on dre all at once, and never intermits his heat. 
Dryden. — At, like the French chez, means fometimes ap¬ 
plication to, or dependence on .—The word authors might en¬ 
deavour to pleafe us, and in that endeavour deferve fome- 
thing at our hands. Pope.—At all. In any manner; in 
any degree. 
AT'AB AL,yi A kind of tabour ufed by the Moors: 
Children diall beat our atabals and drums, 
And all the noify trades of war no more 
Shall wake the peaceful morn, Dryden. 
ATA'BULUS,y. a provincial wind in Apulia, of a dry 
pinching quality, and very noxious in its effects. The 
ancient naturalids fpeak of the atabulus in terms of hor¬ 
ror, on account of the ravage it made among the fruits of 
the earth, which it fcorched or withered up. 
ATABY'RIS, a very high mountain in the ifiand of 
Rhodes, on which, according to Strabo and Diodorus Si¬ 
culus, there dood a temple of Jupiter Atabyrius, whofe 
wordiip a colony of Rhodians carried into Sicily, where 
a temple was built to the fame deity at Agrigentum. 
AT AC A'M A, or Sr. Francis d’ Atacama, a town, 
of South America, in Peru, fifteen leagues from the Pacific 
Ocean, and principal place of a jurifdiiftion on the borders, 
of Chili. The foil is in fome parts fertile, in others fandy 
and barren. Lat.20.45.S. Ion. 51. 30. W. Ferro. 
ALAKKEU'I, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the pro¬ 
vince of Natolia, forty-four miles north-wed of Eregri. 
ATALAN'TA, an illand in the Euripus of Eubnea,. 
near the Locri Opunlii, faid to have been originally a city 
of the Locri, but torn from the continent in the time of 
an earthquake, and during an eruption of mount Etna. 
This happened in the fourth year of the 93d Olympiad, in 
the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon. Pliny. 
Atalanta, a daughter of Schoeneus, king of Scyros.- 
According to fome, die was the daughter of Jafus, or Ja- 
fius, by Clymene; but others fay that Menalion washer 
father. This uncertainty of not rightly knowing the 
name of her father, has led the mythologids into error, 
and fome have maintained that there were two perfons of 
that name, though their fuppofition is groundfefs. Ata¬ 
lanta was born in Arcadia, and, according to Ovid, die 
determined to live in perpetual celibacy; hut her beauty 
gained her many admirers, and, to free herfelf from their 
importunities, die propofed to run a raee with them. 
They were to run without arms, and die was to carry a- 
dart in her hand. Her lovers were to dart fird, and who¬ 
ever arrived at the goal before her would he made her huf- 
band ; but all thofe whom fhe undertook, were to be killed 
by the dart with which die had armed herfelf. As die 
was almod invincible in running, many of her fuitors pe- 
ridied 
