nisus
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of nisus
First recorded in 1690–1700; from Latin nīsus “planting one’s feet firmly, strong muscular effort,” equivalent to nīt(ī) “to support or exert oneself” + -sus, variant of -tus suffix denoting the action of the verb
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The will is the cause of its own act; a cause per se, a cause self-conscious and self-moving; it obeys the reason by its own nisus.
From A Review of Edwards's by Tappan, Henry Philip
Some have confounded it with the mystical nisus formativus, or formative principle of preceding theorists.
From A Mechanico-Physiological Theory of Organic Evolution by Nägeli, Carl Von
What we observe in relation to all causes—not ourselves, whether they be self-conscious or not, is not the nisus, but the sequents of the nisus.
From A Review of Edwards's by Tappan, Henry Philip
To deny such a nisus would be to deny the activity, efficiency, and energy of cause.
From A Review of Edwards's by Tappan, Henry Philip
The "epigenesists" held that both the germ and its subsequent organs were built up of juxtaposed molecules according to the operation of a developmental force, or "nisus formations."
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science by Hammerton, John Alexander, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
