purposive

What it means

1. Serving a particular purpose; useful; adapted to a given purpose, especially through natural evolution.First known use 19th c.

   Irresistably it came to me again that beauty, far from being wasted, was purposive, that this purpose was of a redeeming kind, and that some one who was pleased co-operated with it for my personal benefit.

   1918, Algernon Blackwood, chapter 9, in The Garden of Survival, London: Macmillan, page 142

   1 more example

   As we saw in our discussion of the FAKE GUN example in chapter 19, there are natural dimensions to our categories for objects: […] purposive, based on the uses we can make of an object in a given situation.

   1980, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, chapter 24, in Metaphors We Live By

2. Done or performed with a conscious purpose or intent.First known use 19th c.

   Most human activity is purposive.

   2 more examples

   It would have been quite impossible to use the A vocabulary for literary purposes or for political or philosophical discussion. It was intended only to express simple, purposive thoughts, usually involving concrete objects or physical actions.

   1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Appendix. The Principles of Newspeak.”, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001, page 273

   Other ecclesiastics [...] were similarly accepting of a space for purposive and beneficent human action and betterment in a disenchanted world.

   2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 191

   Synonyms: deliberate, intentional, purposeful, advertent, conscious, witting, deliberate, intentional

3. human sciencesPertaining to purpose, as reflected in behaviour or mental activity.First known use 19th c.

   Ursula could not believe the air in her nostrils. It seemed conscious, malevolent, purposive in its intense murderous coldness.

   1920 November 9, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 29, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed [by Thomas Seltzer] for subscribers only, →OCLC, page 453

   1 more example

   The question at once arises whether medieval thinkers really believed that what we now call inanimate objects were sentient and purposive.

   1964, C. S. Lewis, chapter 5, in The Discarded Image, Cambridge University Press, page 93

In a sentence

Irresistably it came to me again that beauty, far from being wasted, was purposive, that this purpose was of a redeeming kind, and that some one who was pleased co-operated with it for my personal benefit.

1918, Algernon Blackwood, chapter 9, in The Garden of Survival, London: Macmillan, page 142

Where it comes from

1. Middle Englishpurpos
2. Englishpurpose
3. Englishpurposive

From purpose + -ive. Compare purpositive.

First known use: 19th c.