accipient

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin accipiēns (“receiving”, stem: accipient-), the present active participle of accipiō (“I receive”), whence accept.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əkˈsɪpiənt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

accipient (plural accipients)

1. (Late Modern, obsolete) Someone who, or something which, accepts (willingly receives).
   • 1829, David Bishop, Causal Botany, page 145:

     Instances sometimes occur of Species, or Varieties, gaining partial possession of the bodies of one another […] Such instances, however, are very rare, and probably never take place between Varieties belong to the same Primary Species: for although it is an occurrence that evinces an intimate affinity between the plant that confers its distinctions, and that which is the accipient, yet the existence of the conferent in an entire state, would induce us to conclude that there exists a disparity between them which we cannot reasonably suppose to exist between Varieties that have sprung from the same Species.

   • 1855, Marion Harland, Alone, page 344:

     He penned voluminous epistles, to complain of "a trivial oversight in her otherwise irreproachable system of philanthropy," or to convey a "father's acknowledgments for the soul-elevating teachings of which his beloved offspring were accipients;" and when they were unnoticed, his visits were frequent.

   • 1880, James F. Hunnewell, “"Peveril of the Peak"”, in The Lands of Scott, page 366:

     […] these grave and not over-eager accipients of the invitation to the festivity […]

   • 1905 October, J. W. Richard, “The Old Lutheran Doctrine of Free-Will”, in The Lutheran Quarterly, volume 35, pages 459–460:

     “ […] God is the author of salvation, Free will only is susceptible. None but God is able to give it; none but Free will is able to lay hold of it. Therefore it is given by God alone, and given to Free will alone. On the one hand it cannot exist without the consent of the accipient, and on the other hand not without the grace of the giver. […] ”

References

• “accipient”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Verb

accipient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of accipiō