Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GEN'ER-AL-SHIP, n.

The skill and conduct of a general officer; military skill in a commander, exhibited in the judicious arrangements of troops, or the operations of war.

GEN'ER-AL-TY, n.

The whole; the totality. [Little used.] Hale.

GEN'ER-ANT, n. [L. generans.]

The power that generates; the power or principle that produces. Glanville. Ray.

GEN'ER-ATE, v.t. [L. genero. See Gender.]

1. To beget; to procreate; to propagate; to produce a being similar to the parent. Every animal generates his own species.
2. To produce; to cause to be; to bring into life; as, great whales which the waters generated. Milton.
3. To cause; to produce; to form. Sounds are generated where there is no air at all. Bacon. Whatever generates a quantity of good chyle, must likewise generate milk. Arbuthnot. In music, any given sound generates with itself its octave and two other sounds extremely sharp, viz. its twelfth above or the octave of its fifth, and the seventeenth above. Encyc.

GEN'ER-A-TED, pp.

Begotten; engendered; procreated produced; formed.

GEN'ER-A-TING, ppr.

Begetting; procreating; producing; forming.

GEN-ER-A'TION, n.

1. The act of begetting; procreation, as of animals.
2. Production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, or of curves or equations.
3. A single succession in natural descent, as the children of the same parents; hence, an age. Thus we say, the third, the fourth, or the tenth generation. Gen. xv.16.
4. The people of the same period, or living at the same time. O faithless and perverse generation. Luke ix.
5. Genealogy; a series of children or descendants from the same stock. This is the book of the generations of Adam. Gen. v.
6. A family; a race. Shak.
7. Progeny; offspring. Shak.

GEN'ER-A-TIVE, a.

1. Having the power of generating or propagating its own species. Ralegh.
2. Having the power of producing. Bentley.
3. Prolific. Bentley.

GEN'ER-A-TOR, n.

1. He or that which begets, causes or produces.
2. In music, the principal sound or sounds by which others are produced. Thus the lowest C for the treble of the harpsichord, besides its octave, will strike an attentive ear with its twelfth above, or G in alt., and with its seventeenth above, or E in alt. Hence C is called their generator, the G and E its products or harmonics. Encyc.
3. A vessel in which steam is generated. Perkins.

GE-NER'IC, or GE-NER'IC-AL, a. [It. and Sp. generico; Fr. generique; from L. genus.]

Pertaining to a genus or kind; comprehending the genus, as distinct from species, or from another genus. A generic description is a description of a genus; a generic difference is a difference in genus; a generic name is the denomination which comprehends all the species, as of animals, plants or fossils, which have certain essential and peculiar characters in common. Thus Canis is the generic name of animals of the dog kind; Felis, of the cat kind; Cervus, of the deer kind.

GEN-ER'IC-AL-LY, adv.

With regard to genus; as, an animal generically distinct from another, or two animals generically allied. Woodward.

GEN-ER-OS'I-TY, n. [Fr. generosité; L. generositas, from genus, race, kind, with reference to birth, blood, family.]

1. The quality of being generous; liberality in principle; a disposition to give liberally or to bestow favors; a quality of the heart or mind opposed to meanness or parsimony.
2. Liberality in act; bounty.
3. Nobleness of soul; magnanimity. [This is the primary sense, but is now little used.]

GEN'ER-OUS, a. [L. generosus; Fr. genereux, from genus, birth, extraction, family. See Gender.]

1. Primarily, being of honorable birth or origin: hence, noble; honorable; magnanimous; applied to persons; as, a generous foe; a generous critic.
2. Noble; honorable; applied to things; as, a generous virtue; generous boldness; It is used also to denote like qualities in irrational animals; as, a generous pack of hounds. Addison.
3. Liberal; bountiful; munificent; free to give; as, a generous friend; a generous father.
4. Strong; full of spirit; as, generous wine. Boyle. Swift.
5. Full; overflowing; abundant; as, a generous cup; a generous table.
6. Sprightly; courageous; as, a generous steed.

GEN'ER-OUS-LY, adv.

1. Honorably; not meanly.
2. Nobly; magnanimously. Dryden.
3. Liberally; munificently.

GENER-OUS-NESS, n.

1. The quality of being generous; magnanimity; nobleness of mind.
2. Liberality; munificence; generosity.

GEN'E-SIS, n. [Gr. γενεσις, from γενναω, γινομαι. See Gender.]

1. The first book of the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament, containing the history of the creation, of the apostasy of man, of the deluge, and of the first patriarchs, to the death of Joseph. In the original Hebrew, this book has no title; the present title was prefixed to it by those who translated it into Greek.
2. In geometry, the formation of a line, plane or solid, by the motion or flux of a point, line or surface. Encyc.

GEN'ET, n. [Fr.]

1. A small-sized, well-proportioned Spanish horse. Johnson.
2. An animal of the weasel kind, less than the martin.

GEN-ETH-LI'AC-AL, or GEN-ETH'LI-AC, a. [Gr. γενεθλιακος, from γινομαι, to be born.]

Pertaining to nativities as calculated by astrologers; showing the positions of the stars at the birth of any person. [Little used.] Howell.

GEN-ETH'LI-ACS, n.

The science of calculating nativities or predicting the future events of life from the stars which preside at the birth of persons. [Little used.] Johnson.

GEN-ETH-LI-AT'IC, n.

He who calculates nativities. [Little used.] Drummond.

GE-NE'VA, n. [Fr. genevre or genievre, a juniper-berry; It. ginepra; Arm. genevra. The Spanish word is nebrina, and the tree is called enebro, Port. zimbro.]

A spirit distilled from grain or malt, with the addition of juniper-berries. But instead of these berries, the spirit is now flavored with the oil of turpentine. The word is usually contracted and pronounced gin. Encyc.

GE-NE'VA-BI-BLE, n.

A copy of the Bible in English, printed at Geneva; first in 1560. This copy was in common use in England, till the version made by order of King James was introduced, and it was laid aside by the Calvinists with reluctance.

GE-NE'VAN, a.

1. Pertaining to Geneva.
2. n. An inhabitant of Geneva.

GE-NE'VAN-ISM, n. [from Geneva, where Calvin resided.]

Calvinism. Mountagu.

GEN-E-VOIS, n. [plur. jeneva'y.]

People of Geneva. Addison.