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.
dl> 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.'