FromMiddle Englishacceptacioun,acceptation, fromMiddle Frenchacceptacion andLate Latinacceptātiō.[1] Bysurface analysis,accept +-ation.
acceptation (countable anduncountable,pluralacceptations)
- Themeaning (sense) in which a word or expression isunderstood, or generallyreceived.
- Coordinate terms:parse,parsing
The term is to be used according to its usualacceptation.
1731 January 30,John Gay, “Fable: The Dog and the Fox: To a Lawyer”, in Caleb D'Anvers (Nicholas Amhurst), editor,The Craftsman[1], volume 7, page233:My words, in commonAcceptation, / Could never give this Provocation
- 1904–1906,E. K. Chambers, "The Comedy of Errors", in Shakespeare: A Survey, Fifth Printing, published 1958, page 27:
- Farce, indeed, is a term which has been used by literary historians in two rather different shades of meaning. In oneacceptation, derived from its use as applied toMaître Pathelin and other examples of fiteenth-century French dramatic humour, it does not so much connote something other than comedy, as a variety of comedy itself. It is a matter of temper andmilieu.
2003, Jean Revez, “The Metaphorical Use of the Kinship Termsn ‘Brother’”, inJournal of the American Research Center in Egypt, volume40,→JSTOR, page123:Sn may in the latter case designate the uncle, the cousin, or the nephew. None of these scholars, however, has dealt extensively with the third and largestacceptation of the wordsn, namely its metaphorical one.
- (now rare)Acceptance; reception; favorable reception or regard; the state of beingacceptable.
1676,Richard Hooker,Izaak Walton, “The Second Book of Eccleſiaſtical Polity”, inThe Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker, in Eight Books of Eccleſiaſtical Polity[2], page122:Finally, ſome things although not ſo required of neceſſity, that to leave them undone excludeth from Salvation, are notwithſtanding of so great dignity andacceptation with God, that moſt ample reward in Heaven is laid up for them.
1769,King James Bible: 1 Timothy:This is a faithful saying, and worthy of allacceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1985, Harish Kapur,The End of an Isolation: China After Mao,→ISBN,pages31–2:Theacceptation of the anti-hegemony clause – President Carter in May 1978 had encouraged the Japanese to agree to it – compelled the Japanese government to confess publicly what everybody knew: omnidirectional diplomacy notwithstanding, Japan was more favourably disposed towards China than the Soviet Union.
- (theology) The active divinedecision toapprove an act or circumstance, held byScotists to be necessary to render itmeritorious.
1998 [1986],Alister E. McGrath,Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, 2nd edition,→ISBN,page148:This does not, however, mean that the habit of created charity may be regarded as the formal cause of divineacceptation, considered from the standpoint of the one who elicits the act ofacceptation (i.e., God), as this must be regarded as lying within the divine will itself.
Fromaccepter +-ation.
acceptation f (pluralacceptations)
- acceptance
- approval
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, launched 2000.