technology tekno.lod3i. [ad. Gr. texnologia systematic treatment (of grammar, etc.), f. texnh art, craft: see -logy. So Fr. technologie (1812 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1.
a. A discourse or treatise on an art or arts; the scientific study of the practical or industrial arts.

1615 Buck Third Univ. Eng. xlviii, An apt close of this general Technologie.
1628 Venner Baths of Bathe 9 Heere I cannot but lay open Baths Technologie.
1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Technology, a Description of Arts, especially the Mechanical.
1802-12 Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) I. 19 Questions in technology in all its branches.
1881 P. Geddes in Nature 29 Sept. 524/2 Of economic physics, geology, botany, and zoology, of technology and the fine arts.
1882 Mechanical World 4 Mar. 130/1 The Department of Applied Science and Technology.
b. transf. Practical arts collectively.

1859 R. F. Burton Ce ntr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 437 Little valued in European technology it [the chakazi, or `jackass' copal] is exported to Bombay, where it is converted into an inferior varnish.
1864 R. F. Burton Dahome II. 202 His technology consists of weaving, cutting canoes, making rude weapons, and in some places practising a rude metallurgy.
1949 in W. A. Visser t' Hooft First Assembly World Council of Churches 75 There is no inescapable necessity for society to succumb to undirected developments of technology.
1958 J. K. Galbraith Affluent Society ix. 99 Improvements in technology..are the result of investmen t in highly organized scientific and engineering knowledge and skills.
1971 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 10 Dec. 18/2 In the production of millions of children a year, it is not surprising that occasionally natu re's complex technology should break down to produce an imbalance of hormones with masculinisation of the female foetus or feminisation of the male.
1975 Ecologist V. 120/1 Guiding technological development ef fectively is not a matter of being for or against technology, which is the form the discussion usually assumes.
c. With a and pl. A particular practical or industrial art.

1957 Technology Apr. 56/1 It [sc. Chemical Engineering] is now recognized as one of the four primary technologies, alongside civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering.
1960 Electronic Engin. Ma r. 148/1 Electronic data-processing for business is a young technology.
1969 Listener 5 June 778/1 To compare one technology with another.
1979 Computers in Shell (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) 2 Highly complex problems involving the many technologies needed within the energy and associated industries.
d. high-technology applied attrib. to a firm, industry, etc., that produces or utilizes highly advanced and specialized technology, or to the products of such a firm.

Also (unhyphened) as sb. phr. Similarly low-technology.

Cf. high tech s.v. tech3 1.
1964 S. M. Miller in I. L. Horowitz New Sociology 292 The youthful poor possess limited or outmoded skills and inadequate credentials in a hi gh-technology, certificate-demanding economy.
1970 Physics Bull. Apr. 146/1 `High technology' industries demand huge capital and r and d investments.
1972 Nature 2 8 Jan. 183/2 In high technology..errors in estimates of development cost are more serious in their effects.
1973 Newsweek 18 June 92/2 As their old, low-technology industries wilt under the pressure of mountin g labor costs.
1981 Times 14 May 1/7 Export licences are required for a variety of high technology goods including computers, electronic equipment, chemicals, metals and building equipment.

2. The terminology of a particular art or subject; technical nomenclature.

1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus v. 70 The mother of Life and Fountain of souls in Cabalisticall Technology is called Binah.
1793 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XI. 563 The port-customs, the technology, and the maritime laws, all wear marks of this original character.
1802-12 Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) IV. 252 An engine, called, in the technology of that day, fork.
1862 Morn. Star 21 May, Aluminium, and its alloy with copper-which the manufacturers, with a slight laxity of technology , denominate bronze.

3. = Gr. texnologia: see etym. Obs. rare-1.

1683 Twells Exam. Gram. Pref. 17 There were not any further Essays made in Technology, for above Fourscore years; but all men acquiesced in the Common Grammar.

4. Special Combs.:

technology assessment, the assessment of the effects on society of new technology;

technology transfer, the transfer of new technology or advanced technological information from the developed to the less developed countries of the world.

1966 Inquiries, Legislation, Policy Stud. Subcomm. Sci., Res., & Devel; (U.S. Congress: House: Comm. Sci. & Astronaut.) 27 We must be cognizant of what technology is doing to us-the bad as well as the good. Toward this end we would consider the exploration of legislation to establish a Technology Assessment Board-wi th the somewhat appropriate acronym TAB, since this would be its function;
1979 Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci; Mar. 21 Unanswered questions are threatening to leave technology assessment a mere intellectual pastime.
1969 Listener 24 July 106/3 This seems to show that Africa can use western techniques to her advantage, but only so long as the different cultural, intellectual and material contexts are kept firmly in mind when the technology-transfer is being planned.
1978 Internat. Relations Dict. (U.S. Dept. State Library) 40/2 Technology transfer has been defined as `the transfer of knowledge generated and dev eloped in one place to another, where it is used to achieve some practical end.'