PER SE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Per se

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/pər sˌaʊθˈist/ Listen

noun

A n.

The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, the equivalent of the Hebrew Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the ä sound, the Phoenician alphabet having no vowel symbols. This letter, in English, is used for several different vowel sounds. The regular long a, as in fate, etc., is a comparatively modern sound, and has taken the place of what, till about the early part of the 17th century, was a sound of the quality of ä (as in far).

(Mus.) The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. A sharp is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B. A flat is the name of a tone intermediate between A and G.

A per se, one preeminent; a nonesuch. (Obs.) "O fair Creseide, the flower and A per se Of Troy and Greece."

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Etymology of 'Per se'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Per se" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the Washington or Jefferson of an earlier day now began to be nourished such a leader as "Bob" Toombs, who for all of his fire and eloquence was a demagogue. In making its choice the South could not and did not blame the Negro per se, for it was freely recognized that upon slave labor rested such economic stability as the section possessed. The tragedy was simply that thousands of intelligent Americans deliberately turned their faces to the past, and preferred to read the novels of Walter Scott and live in the Middle Ages rather ...

— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... albedo accidit albo, qua sublata perit nimirum album. At in domino, si seruum auferas, perit uocabulum quo dominus uocabatur; sed non accidit seruus domino ut albedo albo, sed potestas quaedam qua seruus coercetur. Quae quoniam sublato deperit seruo, constat non eam per se domino accidere sed per seruorum ...

— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

... is, therefore, Atheistic," and again, "Theism believes in a spirit superior to matter, and so does Pantheism; but the spirit of Theism is self-conscious, and therefore personal and of individual existence-a nature per se, and upholding all things by an active control; while Pantheism believes in spirit that is of a higher nature than brute matter, but is a mere unconscious principle of life, impersonal, irrational as the brute ...

— God the Known and God the Unknown • Samuel Butler

... the doctor, shaking his head "depends on who's in it. No house is that per se. But I reckon there isn't much plate glass. I suppose you'll find the doors all painted blue, and every fireplace with ...

— Queechy, Volume I • Elizabeth Wetherell

... chel zeuero per se solo non significa nulla ma e potentia di fare significare, ... Et decina o centinaia o migliaia non si puote scrivere senza questo segno 0. la quale si chiama zeuero." [Fazzari, loc. ...

— The Hindu-Arabic Numerals • David Eugene Smith

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