circuitry

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English[edit]

WOTD – 16 November 2019

Etymology[edit]

The circuitry (sense 1) of an ADSL modem

From circuit +‎ -ry.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

circuitry (countable and uncountable, plural circuitries)

  1. (countable) A specific system of electrical circuits in a particular device; (uncountable) the design of such a system.
    • 1947 April 25, Ernst H[enry] Krause, “High Altitude Research with V-2 Rockets”, in Luther P[fahler] Eisenhart, editor, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 91, number 5, Philadelphia, Pa.: American Philosophical Society […], →ISSN, →OCLC, figure 3 caption, page 432, column 2:
      Telemetering transmitter removed from its pressurized container. The circuitry for each of the 23 channels can be quickly unplugged for servicing.
    • 1959 August, Lew Allen, Jr., James L. Beavers, II, William A. Whitaker, Jasper A. Welch, Jr., Roddy B. Walton, “Project Jason Measurement of Trapped Electrons from a Nuclear Device by Sounding Rockets”, in Journal of Geophysical Research, volume 64, number 8, Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 894, column 1:
      After jettison of nose cap, all the detector circuitry became exposed to the radiation environment.
    • 1964 November, Alfred G. Beswick, “Impact-detection Experiment”, in Charles T. D’Aiutolo, editor, The Micrometeoroid Satellite Explorer XIII (1961 Chi): Collected Papers on Design and Performance (NASA Technical Note; D-2468), Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, section II (Impact-detection-systems Operation), pages 177–178:
      The output signal of the multi-vibrator pulse-shaper circuit was the impact-event counting pulse. Its constant parameters provide a better form of input signal for the counting and storing circuitries than the originally tranduced impact signal. The status of the impact event-counting and storage circuitries was telemetered whenever the satellite transmitted its data.
    • 1975 March 24, Wallace Keith Larkin, Acoustical Communications Headset, US Patent 3,993,879 (PDF version), column 1:
      Prior art radio and telephone communication headsets typically incorporate a microphone and receiver which require amplifier or other appropriate electronic impedance matching circuits for interface with the console, or at least electrically conductive wires to similar electronic circuitry located in the console.
    • 2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club‎[1], archived from the original on 31 May 2018:
      Before he died, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), the hermit-like, socially maladjusted tech genius who created The Oasis, hid an Easter egg somewhere in the circuitry, scattering bread crumbs that lead to its location. Find the egg, and the mogul’s fortune—along with total control of his digital fiefdom—is yours. It’s the ultimate capitalist scavenger hunt!
  2. (uncountable) Electrical (or, by extension, other) circuits considered as a group.
    • 1964 February, William Jury, “Green River Greets the Space Age: Work Begins on New $16,000,000 Research Center”, in Chester Chatfield, editor, The Boeing Magazine, volume XXXIV, number 2, Seattle, Wash.: Public Relations Office, The Boeing Company, →OCLC, page 11, column 3:
      In the microelectronics area, research and development efforts will concentrate on thin film circuitry, packaging and solid state electronics (work with transistors and the like). [...] The savings in weight over old-fashioned circuitry are important when the cost of items in orbit is figured at $1,000 per pound.
    • 1999, Andrea Nye, “Master of Passion”, in The Princess and the Philosopher: Letters of Elisabeth of the Palatine to René Descartes, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 89:
      The source of that passion [according to René Descartes] is "animal spirits," a circuitry of mechanical energy—blood circulation, heartbeat, muscle tension—whose purpose is not to inform but to protect the body from harm. Although the circuitry operates automatically in animals, in men bodily energies also register on the soul so as to "incite the soul to correct and contribute to the actions which may serve to maintain the body."
  3. (uncountable, figuratively) The brain's neural network.
    • 1969, L. M. H. Larramendi, “Electron Microscopic Studies of Cerebellar Interneurons”, in Mary A[gnes] B[urnston] Brazier, editor, The Interneuron: Proceedings of a Conference Held September, 1967: […] (UCLA Forum in Medical Sciences; no. 11), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 269:
      Since [Santiago Ramón y] Cajal's neural circuitry did not include inhibitory cells, he believed that short-axoned cells were important in maintaining a continuous and persistent activity in neural centers.
    • 1993, Kathleen R. Gibson, “Introduction: Overlapping Neural Control of Language, Gesture and Tool-use”, in Kathleen R. Gibson, Tim Ingold, editors, Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, published 2004, →ISBN, part III (Connecting up the Brain), page 187:
      Some argue that the human brain contains structures or circuitry not found in the brains of other animals. [...] Others emphasize the massive increase in human brain size and posit that human behavior is an emergent phenomenon which reflects quantitative increases in neural processing capacity.
    • 1999, Rodney Douglas, Christof Koch, Misha Mahowald, Kevan Martin, “The Role of Recurrent Excitation in Neocortical Circuits”, in Philip S. Ulinski, Edward G. Jones, Alan Peters, editors, Models of Cortical Circuits (Cerebral Cortex; 13), New York, N.Y.: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, →ISBN, page 254:
      Increases in cortical volume translate largely into increases in cortical area, and beneath each area of cortex the cellular composition of the cortical laminae is rather similar. Thus, the operation of making more cortex seems to emphasize local circuitry.
    • 1999, Auke Jan Ijspeert, “Synthetic Approaches to Neurobiology: Review and Case Study in the Control of Anguiliform Locomotion”, in Dario Floreano, Jean-Daniel Nicoud, Francesco Mondada, editors, Advances in Artificial Life: 5th European Conference, ECAL’99, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 1999: Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence; 1674), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, →ISBN, abstract, page 195:
      The first experiment consists in using the evolutionary algorithm for instantiating low level parameters of a connectionist simulation of the lamprey's locomotor circuitry. The second experiment develops potential neural circuits for the swimming and trotting of the salamander; an animal whose locomotor circuitry has currently not been decoded.
    • 2015, Paula J. Brunton, John A. Russell, “Maternal Brain Adaptations in Pregnancy”, in Toby M. Plant, Anthony J. Zeleznik, editors, Knobil and Neill’s Physiology of Reproduction, 4th edition, volume 1, London, Waltham, Mass.: Academic Press, →ISBN, part VI (Pregnancy and Lactation), page 1976, column 1:
      Possible changes in pregnancy to explain increased food intake and consequent increased energy storage have been considered in the context of the neural circuitry in the hypothalamus and brain stem that homeostatically regulates appetite, the mesolimbic circuitry regulating hedonic appetite, and the actions of circulating hormones on or in this circuitry.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “circuitry, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1972; “circuitry, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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