state - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Middle English stat

English state

From Middle English stat (as a noun); adopted c. 1200 from both Old French estat and Latin stātus (“manner of standing, attitude, position, carriage, manner, dress, apparel; and other senses”), from stāre (“to stand”). Doublet of estate and status. The sense of "polity" develops in the 14th century. Compare French être, Greek στέω (stéo), Italian stare, Portuguese estar, Romanian sta, and Spanish estar. The verb is first attested around the beginning of the 16th century. Related to English stand.

state (plural states)

  1. A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
    a state of being
    a state of emergency
    • 1697, “Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil‎[1], volume III, Londo: Jacob Tonson, published 1721, page 713:
      Relate what Latium was, her ancient Kings : / Declare the paſt, and preſent State of things, / When firſt the Trojan Fleet Auſonia ſought ; / And how the Rivals lov’d, and how they fought.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.
    1. (physics) A complete description of a system, consisting of parameters that determine all properties of the system.
      • 1977, J. B. Sykes; John Stewart Bell, translating Lev Landau; Evgeny Lifshitz, Course of Theoretical Physics Vol. 3: Quantum Mechanics: Non-relativistic Theory, page 28:
        States in which the energy has definite values are called stationary states of a system; they are described by wave functions Ψₙ which are the eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian operator, i.e. which satisfy the equation ĤΨₙ = EₙΨₙ, where Eₙ are the eigenvalues of the energy.
    2. (colloquial, in the singular) A mess; disorder; a bad condition or set of circumstances.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:difficult situation
      absolute state
      in a state
      in a bit of a state
      • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “Traditional Sunday Breakfast”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 92:
        Who the fuck undressed me? Try tracing back. It's now Sunday. Yesterday was Saturday. The semi-final at Hampden. I had got myself into some fucking state before and after the match.
      • 2019 June 3, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “An absolute state of a visit: what the Trump and Windsor snapshots tell us”, in The Guardian‎[2]:
        An absolute state of a visit: what the Trump and Windsor snapshots tell us [title]
    3. (computing) The stable condition of a processor during a particular clock cycle.
      In the fetch state, the address of the next instruction is placed on the address bus.
    4. (computing) The set of all parameters relevant to a computation.
      The state here includes a set containing all names seen so far.
    5. (computing) The values of all parameters at some point in a computation.
      A debugger can show the state of a program at any breakpoint.
    6. (sciences) The physical property of matter as solid, liquid, gas or plasma.
    7. (obsolete) Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
  2. High social standing or circumstance.
    1. Pomp, ceremony, or dignity.
      in state
      The President's body will lie in state at the Capitol.
    2. Rank; condition; quality.
    3. Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous circumstances; social importance.
      • 1616, Francis Bacon, The History of Henry VII, of England, published 1786, page 139:
        Firſt, in princely behaviour and geſture, teaching him how he ſhould keep of a kind of ſtate, and yet, with a modeſt ſenſe of his misfortunes.
      • 1703, “The Thebais of Statius”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Works of Alexander Pope, volume II, London: H. Lintont et al., published 1751, book I, page 145:
        Can this imperious lord forget to reign, / Quit all his ſtate, deſcend, and ſerve again ?
    4. A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais; a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself.
      Synonym: chair of state
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 443–447:
        […] and from the dore / Of that Plutonia Hall, inviſible / Aſcended his high Throne, which under ſtate / Of richeſt texture ſpred, at th’ upper end / Was plac’t in regal luſtre.
      • 1712, John Arbuthnot, Jonathan Swift [uncertain], “Jack’s Charms, or the Method by which he gain’d Peg’s Heart”, in John Bull Still In His Senses, London: John Morphew, page 13:
        He invented a way of coming into a Room backwards, which he ſaid ſhew’d more Humility, and leſs Affectation ; where other People ſtood, he ſat ; when he went to Court, he us’d to kick away the State, and ſit down by his Prince, Cheek by Choul […]
    5. (obsolete) A great person, a dignitary; a lord or prince.
      • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i:
        We in the name of other Perſean ſtates,
        And commons of this mightie Monarchy,
        Preſent thee with the Emperiall Diadem.
      • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, page 1:
        They who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth direct their Speech, High Court of Parlament, or wanting ſuch acceſſe in a private condition, write that which they foreſee may advance the publick good ; I ſuppoſe them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter’d and mov’d inwardly in their mindes […]
    6. (obsolete) Estate, possession.
      • 1595, Samuel Daniel, “The Civile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke”, in Alexander Balloch Grosart, editor, The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Samuel Daniel, volume II, book IV, stanza 20, page 142:
        Their parties great, meanes good, the ſeaſon fit, / Their practice cloſe, their faith ſuſpected not, / Their ſtates far off, and they of wary wit : / Who, with large promiſes, ſo wooe the Scot / To aide their Cauſe, as he conſents to it ; / And glad was to diſturne that furious ſtreame / Of warre, on vs, that elſe had ſwallowed them.
      • c. 1619, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Fatal Dowry”, in The Works of Philip Massinger, volume II, London: T. Davies, published 1761, [Act V, scene ii], page 271:
        Your ’State, my Lord, again is yours.
  3. (mathematics, stochastic processes) An element of the range of the random variables that define a random process.
  4. (grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that do not change over time.
    Antonym: occurrence
    • 1997, Robert van Valin, Randy LaPolla, Syntax‎[3], page 92:
      […] distinctions among states of affairs are reflected to a striking degree in distinctions among Aktionsart types. That is, situations are expressed by state verbs or predicates, events by achievement verbs or predicates, and actions by activity verbs or predicates.
    • 2010, Nick Riemer, Introducing Semantics‎[4], page 320:
      The most basic Aktionsart distinction is between states and occurrences.

English terms starting with “state”

a/the State, the sovereign country or city state with the central government as its visible instrument

a political division of a federation retaining a degree of autonomy

a condition

state (third-person singular simple present states, present participle stating, simple past and past participle stated)

  1. (transitive) To declare to be a fact.
    He stated that he was willing to help.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
    • 1994, Congress of the United States, United States Statutes at Large, volume 108, part 4:
      A provision of law may not be construed as requiring a new grant to be awarded to a specified non-Federal Government entity unless that provision of law (1) specifically refers to this subsection; specifically identifies the particular non-Federal Government entity involved; and (3) specifically states that the award to that entity is required by such provision of law in contravention of the policy set forth in subsection (a).
    • 1996, Konrad Lorenz, chapter 5, in Robert D. Martin, transl., The Natural Science of the Human Species‎[5], Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, page 93:
      The species-preserving purposivity of higher organisms is no greater than that of the lowest forms of life, and Jakob von Uexküll was entirely justified in stating that all living organisms are equally well adapted to their environments.
    • 2017, K R Wadhwaney, Indian Cricket Controversies:
      When Tony Greig, in a meaningful and provocative interview, asked Sarfaraz background of betting and match-fixing, the Pakistan "superbat" categorically stated that it should start with Asif Iqbal and Gavaskar who, according to him, were the "original fixers"..
  2. (transitive) To make known.
    State your intentions.

State is stronger or more definitive than say. It is used to communicate an absence of reasonable doubt and to emphasize the factual or truthful nature of the communication. The poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant listed state, when used as a synonym for say, in his style guide for The New York Evening Post, which he called the "Index Expurgatorius".

Some journalists prefer to follow the formula that "People say things, and documents state things".

state (comparative more state, superlative most state)

  1. (obsolete) Stately.
    • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC, folio 36, recto:
      The ſhepheardes ſwayne you cannot well ken, / But it be by his pride, from other men: / They looken bigge as Bulles, that bene bate, / And bearen the cragge ſo ſtiffe and ſo ſtate, / As Cocke on his dunghill, crowing cranck.

state

  1. plural of staat

Apheretic form of estate.

state f (plural stati)

  1. (Tuscan) alternative form of estate
    • 1567, Ricettario fiorentino [Florentine Cookbook]‎[6], page 5:
      L'ACQVA buona […] debbe toſto riſcaldarſi, e raffreddarſi, e la ſtate eſſere freſca, e l'inuerno tiepida.
      Good water should quickly heat up, and cool down; and be cool during Summer, and lukewarm during Winter.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

state

  1. inflection of stare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

state f pl

  1. feminine plural of stato

stāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of stō

state

  1. vocative masculine singular of status

state

  1. plural of stat

From Middle English stat, from Old French estat, from Latin status.

state

  1. condition
    • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 116, lines 1-2:
      Ye state na dicke daie o'ye londe, na whilke be nar fash nar moile, albiet 'constitutional agitation,'
      The condition, this day, of the country, in which is neither tumult nor disorder, but that constitutional agitation,