SG Heritage Dictionary

Major [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Greater in number, quantity or extent; as the major part of the assembly; the major part of the revenue; the major part of the territory.

2. Greater in dignity.

3. My major vow lies here.

4. In music, an epithet applied to the modes in which the third is four semitones above the tonic or key-note, and to intervals consisting of four semitones.

5. Major and minor, in music, are applied to concords which differ from each other by a semitone.

6. Major tone, the difference between the fifth and fourth, and major semitone is the difference between the major fourth and the third. The major tone surpasses the minor by a comma.

Major [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. In military affairs, an officer next in rank above a captain, and below a lieutenant colonel; the lowest field officer.

2. The mayor of a town. [ See Mayor .]

3. Aid-major, an officer appointed to act as major on certain occasions.

4. Brigade-major. [See Brigade.]

5. Drum-major, the first drummer in a regiment, who has authority over the other drummers.

6. Fife-major, the first or chief fifer.

7. Sergeant-major, a non-commissioned officer, subordinate to the adjutant.

8. In law, a person of full age to manage his own concerns.

9. In logic, the first proposition of a regular syllogism, containing the principal term; as, no unholy person is qualified for happiness in heaven, [the major ] Every man in his natural state is unholy, [minor.] Therefore, no man in his natural state, is qualified for happiness in heaven, [conclusion or inference.]

Major [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Greater in number, quantity, or extent; as, the major part of the assembly; the major part of the revenue; the major part of the territory.

2. Of greater dignity; more important.

3. Of full legal age.

4. Greater by a semitone, either in interval or in difference of pitch from another tone.

5. An officer next in rank above a captain and next below a lieutenant colonel; the lowest field officer.

6. A person of full age.

7. That premise which contains the major term. It its the first proposition of a regular syllogism; as: No unholy person is qualified for happiness in heaven [the major]. Every man in his natural state is unholy [minor]. Therefore, no man in his natural state is qualified for happiness in heaven [conclusion or inference].

8. A mayor.

Major Encyclopedia Britannica

MAJOR, or Mair, John (c. 1470-1550), a theological and historical writer, was born at the village of Cleghorn, near North Berwick, Scotland, about the year 1470. After a short period spent at Cambridge, he entered the university of Paris in 1493, studying successively at the colleges of St Barbe and Montaigu, and graduating as master of arts, in 1496. Promoted to the doctorate in 1505, he lectured in philosophy at Montaigu College for some time, and had several distinguished auditors. From 1518 to 1522 he held the office of principal in the university of Glasgow, John Knox being among the number of those who attended his lectures there; he was afterwards removed to St Andrews, where George Buchanan was one of his pupils in 1525. He appears again to have returned to France for some time, but we find him once more at St Andrews in 1530, where he was head of St Salvator’s College from 1533 until his death, which took place about 1550.

He wrote In Libros Sententiarum commentarius, Paris, 1509- 19; De Historia Gentis Scotorum libri sex, Paris, 1521; Commentarius in Physica Aristotelis, Paris, 1526; and In Quatuor Euangelia Expositiones Luculentae, Paris, 1529. By Knox he is spoken of as having been in his day an oracle in religious matters; and it has been conjectured that both the great Reformer and Buchanan were largely indebted to him for their advanced opinions on political and ecclesiastical questions. His writings do not now, however, possess any interest or importance apart from this circumstance;, and even Buchanan has allowed himself to speak of his old preceptor as “Joannes solo cognomine major.”

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 15, p. 310
[273 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]

Major general Webster's Dictionary 1913

An officer of the army holding a rank next above that of brigadier general and next below that of lieutenant general, and who usually commands a division or a corps.

Major-domo [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A man who holds the place of master of the house; a steward; also, a chief minister.

Major-domo [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A man who has authority to act, within certain limits, as master of the house; a steward; also, a chief minister or officer.

Major-general [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A military officer who commands a division or a number of regiments; the next in rank below a lieutenant general.

Majorat [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The right of succession to property according to age; -- so termed in some of the countries of continental Europe.

2. Property, landed or funded, so attached to a title of honor as to descend with it.

Majorate [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To augment; to increase.

Majorate [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The office or rank of a major.

Majoration [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Increase; enlargement. [Not used.]

Majoration [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Increase; enlargement.

Majorca Encyclopedia Britannica

MAJORCA. See Balearic Islands.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 15, p. 310
[4 words — estimated reading time: 1 minute]

Majorcan [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Of or pertaining to Majorca.

Majorcan [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A native or inhabitant of Majorca.

Majorianus Encyclopedia Britannica

MAJORIANUS, Julius Valerius, emperor of the West from 457 to 461, was the successor of Avitus. He had been a distinguished soldier under Àetius, and also after the death of that general; for his election to the purple he was indebted to the powerful Count Ricimer, patrician of Rome. To put a stop to the harassing incursions of the Vandals he, in 458, resolved to lead an expedition against Genseric himself; for this purpose he got together a large army, composed chiefly of barbarians, and, passing the Alps in November 458, made Lyons, and afterwards Arles, his headquarters until the preparations for the invasion of Africa had been completed. Having during his stay in Gaul succeeded in pacifying Theodoric, he, in the beginning of 460, crossed the Pyrenees for the purpose of joining his armament at Carthagena. Genseric, however, after all overtures for peace had been rejected, succeeded through the treachery of certain officers in surprising the Roman fleet, most of the ships being either taken or destroyed. Majorianus returned at once to Gaul, where he made peace with Genseric in the following year. Soon afterwards, while at Tortona in Lombardy, he was surrounded by partisans of Ricimer, and compelled to abdicate (August 2, 461). He died, most probably by violence, five days afterwards, and was succeeded on the throne by Severus. He was the author of several laws, which, “remarkable for an original cast of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of a sovereign who loved his people, who sympathized in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the empire, and who was. capable of applying (as far as such reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to the public disorders” (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 39).

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 15, p. 310
[293 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]

Majorities [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Majority

Majority [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. The greater number; more than half; as a majority of mankind; a majority of votes in Congress. A measure may be carried by a large or small majority

2. Full age; the age at which the laws of a country permit a young person to manage his own affairs. Henry III. had no sooner come to his majority than the barons raised war against him.

3. The office, rank or commission of a major.

4. The state of being greater.

5. It is not a plurality of parts, without majority of parts. [Little used.]

6. [Latin majores.] Ancestors; ancestry. [Not used.]

7. Chief rank. [Not used.]

Majority [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The quality or condition of being major or greater; superiority.

2. The military rank of a major.

3. The condition of being of full age, or authorized by law to manage one's own affairs.

4. The greater number; more than half; as, a majority of mankind; a majority of the votes cast.

5. Ancestors; ancestry.

6. The amount or number by which one aggregate exceeds all other aggregates with which it is contrasted; especially, the number by which the votes for a successful candidate exceed those for all other candidates; as, he is elected by a majority of five hundred votes. See Plurality.

Majorship [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The office of major.