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constituent

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From Latin cōnstituēns, present participle of cōnstituō (“I establish”), from com- (“together”) + statuo (“I set, place, establish”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kənˈstɪtjuənt/, /kənˈstɪt͡ʃuənt/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

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constituent (not comparable)

  1. Being a part or component of a whole.
    • 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
      Body, soul, and reason are the three parts necessarily constituent of a man.
  2. Constitutive or constituting.
    1. (politics or law) Authorized to make a constitution.
      the Constituent Assembly
      • 1769, Junius, letter on 19 December, 1769, (part of Letters of Junius)
        A question of right arises between the constituent and representative body.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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constituent (plural constituents)

  1. A part, or component of a whole.
    • 1865, John Tyndall, The Constitution of the Universe, published 1869, page 11:
      We know how to bring these constituents together, and to cause them to form water.
    • 1970, Thomas Pyles, John Algeo, English: An Introduction to Language, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 135:
      Just as a regiment is ultimately made up of soldiers, so the sentence is of morphemes—they are its ultimate constituents.
  2. A person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs.
    • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC:
      whose first composure and origination requires a higher and nobler Constituent than either Chance or the ordinary method of meer Natural causes.
  3. A resident of an area represented by an elected official, particularly in relation to that official.
    • 1835, James Fenimore Cooper, The Monikins‎[1], volume 1, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, pages 75–76:
      The candidate himself, the son and heir of a peer, feels that he is truly of the same flesh and blood as his constituents; how amiably he smiles!—how bland are his manners!—and with what cordiality does he shake hands with the greasiest and the worst!
    • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 40:
      He had been chief justice of Chester when Delamere, then Mr. Booth, represented that county in parliament. Booth had bitterly complained to the Commons that the dearest interests of his constituents were intrusted to a drunken jackpudding.
    • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian‎[2]:
      But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online.
  4. (politics) A voter who supports a (political) candidate; a supporter of a cause.
    • 2023 January 19, Franklin Foer, “How Joe Biden Wins Again”, in The Atlantic‎[3]:
      But he [Joe Biden] believes that non-college-educated voters, the neglected constituents he wants to take back from the Republicans, hardly know about the big bills emanating from Washington with banal names.
  5. (law) One who appoints another to act for him as attorney in fact[1]
  6. (grammar) A functional element of a phrase or clause.
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 65:
      Thus, the postulation of a Noun Phrase constituent is justified on morphological grounds, since it is not obvious how we could describe the grammar of the genitive s inflection in English without saying that it's a Noun Phrase inflection.
    • 1993, Peter Matthews, “Central Concepts of Syntax”, in Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld, Theo Vennemann, editors, Syntax, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 95:
      In the first bracketting[sic], old and men are constituents of an intermediate unit old men, and in the second, men, and and women are similarly the constituents of men and women. The units are made up directly of these words: therefore these are, more precisely, their immediate constituents.

Derived terms

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terms derived from adjective or noun (unsorted)
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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Alexander M[ansfield] Burrill (1850–1851), “CONSTITUENT”, in A New Law Dictionary and Glossary: […], volume (please specify |part= or |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: John S. Voorhies, […], →OCLC.

Further reading

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin cōnstituentem.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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constituent m or f (masculine and feminine plural constituents)

  1. constituent (being a part of a whole)
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Further reading

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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constituent

  1. third-person plural present/subjunctive of constituer

Latin

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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cōnstituent

  1. third-person plural future active indicative of cōnstituō

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French constituant.

Noun

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constituent n (plural constituenți)

  1. constituent

Declension

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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative constituent constituentul constituenți constituențile
genitive-dative constituent constituentului constituenți constituenților
vocative constituentule constituenților
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