sequent

English

Etymology

1550s; borrowed from Middle French sequent, from Old French sequent, itself borrowed from Latin sequentem, present participle of sequī (“to follow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsiːkwənt/

Adjective

sequent (comparative more sequent, superlative most sequent)

1. (obsolete) That comes after in time or order; subsequent.
   • 1860, James Thomson (B.V.), Two Sonnets‎^[1]:

     Why are your songs all wild and bitter sad
     As funeral dirges with the orphans' cries?
     Each night since first the world was made hath had
     A sequent day to laugh it down the skies.

2. (now rare) That follows on as a result, conclusion etc.; consequent to, on, upon.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     But let my Triall, be mine owne Confession: / Immediate sentence then, and sequent death, / Is all the grace I beg.

   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:

     Maisie found herself clutched to her mother's breast and passionately sobbed and shrieked over, made the subject of a demonstration evidently sequent to some sharp passage just enacted.

3. Recurring in succession or as a series; successive, consecutive.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     The Gallies Haue sent a dozen sequent Messengers / This very night, at one anothers heeles: / And many of the Consuls, rais'd and met, / Are at the Dukes already.

Related terms

• sequence

Translations

that comes after — see subsequent

that follows on — see consequent

recurring in succession

• Bulgarian: следващ (bg) (sledvašt)
• Finnish: perättäinen (fi)
• Russian: после́дующий (ru) (poslédujuščij), сле́дующий (ru) (slédujuščij), последовательный (ru) (posledovatelʹnyj)

Noun

sequent (plural sequents)

1. Something that follows in a given sequence.
   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.30:

     The One is somewhat shadowy. It is sometimes called God, sometimes the Good; it transcends Being, which is the first sequent upon the One.

2. (logic) A disjunctive set of logical formulae which is partitioned into two subsets; the first subset, called the antecedent, consists of formulae which are valuated as false, and the second subset, called the succedent, consists of formulae which are valuated as true. (The set is written without set brackets and the separation between the two subsets is denoted by a turnstile symbol, which may be read "give(s)".)

   A sequent $a,b\vdash c,d$ could be interpreted to correspond to an Existential Graph, whose expression in Existential Graph Interchange Format would be
   ~[(a) (b) ~[(c)] ~[(d)]], which in ordinary language could be expressed as "a and b give c or d".

3. (obsolete) A follower.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath miscarried.

4. (mathematics) A sequential calculus

Derived terms

• hypersequent
• sequent calculus

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sekʷ- (3 c, 0 e)

Translations

something that follows

• Finnish: seuraus (fi)
• Russian: элеме́нт последовательности (elemént posledovatelʹnosti)

logic

• Finnish: seuraus (fi)

Further reading

• “sequent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “sequent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.