DIM
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DIO
A diminip'd Interval is mark'd with a flat, or a double
DIMINUTION, in Rhetoric, is the Augmenting, and Ex- aggerating what you have to fay, by an Expreffion that feems to weaken, and dimhiip it.
As, forlnftance, when a Man fays with a certain Tone, This Woman is not ugly 5 meaning, /he is very handfome.
Some Authors take Diminution in a flrifter Senfe, viz. For faying lefs than a Man really means, as : Tou arc not indeed to be commended; where a greater Reproach is fecretlv meant.
Diminution, inMufic, is when there are a Number of Words, which are to make Tones and feveral quick Motions in the Space of a Cadence; feveral Quavers, and Semi- quavers, correfponding to a Crochet, or Minim.
Diminutions, in Heraldry, a Term ufed by the La- tins for what we more ufually call Differences, and the French Brifures. See Differences.
Diminution, in Architecture, a Contraction of the upper Part of a Column, whereby its Diameter is made lefs than that of the lower Part. Set Column.
To attain thofe two important Points in Architecture, Strength, and the Appearance of Strength, all Architects have made their Columns leffer above than below 7 which is call'd their Diminution. Some have likewife made them a little bigger towards the middle than at the Bottom, which is calFd their Swelling. The Gothic Architects, indeed, ob- ferve neither Dimimition, nor Swelling : Their Columns arc perfectly Cylindrical ; for which reafbn they are properly call'd Tillars, inContra-diftinction to Columns. See Pillar.
The Diminution generally commences from one Third of the Height of the Column. Some make it begin from the Very Safis, and hold tapering to the Capital ; but this has not'fo good an Effect. Vitruvius would have the Diminu- tion of" Columns differ according to their Height, and not according to their Diameter. Thus, a Column 15 Foot high, he diminipes a fixth Part of its Diameter, and another of 50 Foot, only an 8th Part ; but we don't find this Rule obferv'd in the Antique.
The Difference of Orders, Mr. <Perrault obferves, docs not infer a Difference of Diminution ; there being fmall and great Diminutions in different Works of the fame Order: Excepting, however, the Zftfctfn, which Vitrumus diminishes by a 4th Part ; tho' Vignola only makes it a 5th, and the T'rajan Column a cjrh. The Diminutions are very different- ly adjufkd in the different antique Buildings, as well as in the different modern Authors.
DIMINUTIVE, in Grammar, a Word form'd from fome other, to foften, or diminip the Force, and Effect thereof: Or, to Signify a Thing, that is little in its Kind.
Thus Bullock is a Diminutive of Bull $ Cellule of Cell.
The Italians abound in Diminutives ; Every Author be- ing at Liberty "to make as many as he pleafes. The French are a gcod deal mere referved in that refpeS 5 tho' their old Authors were every whit as licentious as the Italians, witnefs Bells&u, &c.
In Englip we have very few 5 not that our Language is hard, and incapable of the fofteft Expreflions, but by rea- fon we lay all our Tendcrnefs in our Sentiments : Or rather, our Language is tender like a Perfon of Difcrction, who al- ways fpeaks Senfe, even in fpeaking of his Paffion.
In Latin, Italian, Englifo, and moll other Tongues, Di- minutives are form'd from Primitives, by the Addition of a few Letters, or Syllables : In French, the Cafe is frequently otherwiie, the Diminutive being fometimes fliortcr than the Primitive, fometimes the fame Length.
Some Grammarians call at leaf a diminutive Conjunction, as ferving to leffen, or diminip the Force of what went be- fore. See Conjunction.
DIMISSORY Letters, Dimijforia Liters, in the Canon Law, a Letter given by a Bifhop to a Candidate for holy Orders, born, or inhabiting in his Diocefe ; direcled to fome other Bifhop, and giving Leave for the Bearer to be ordain'd by him. See Ordination.
When a Perfon produces Letters of Ordination, or Ton- fure conferr'd by any other than his own Diocefan, he muft at the fame Time produce the Letters Dimiffory given by his own Bifhop, on Pain of Nullity.
Letters Dimiffory cannot be given by the Chapter Sede vacante 5 This being deem'd an Act of voluntary Jurif- diclion, which ought to be referv'd to the Succeffor.
DIM0CRIT.#C a Name given the Apollinarifis. Thofe Hcreticks at firtt held, that the Word only affum'd a human Body, without taking a reafonable Soul like to ours. But bein<* at length convine'd by formal Texts of Scripture, they^ allowed, that he did affume a Soul, but without Un- demanding h the Word fupplying the Want of that Faculty. From this Way of feparating the Underfianding from the Soul, they became denominated Dimocrites, q. d. Dividers, Separaters, or*JW> and ^sipa, I divide. See Apollinarist.
DINNER, the great Meal, or that taken about the Middle of the Day. See Meal.
Monks are faid to dine at eleven o 1 Clock, the common People about 12, and the Men of Bufinefs about 2. The Grand 'Tartar, Emperor oiChina, after hehas dined, makes Publication by his Heralds, that he gives Leave to all the other Kings and Potentates of the Earth, to go toDimier - as if they waited for his Leave.
The Word is form'd from the French Difner, which du Cange derives from the barbarous Latin difnare. Henry Stephens derives it from the Greek ^siVce/p j and will have it wrote Dipner. Menage deduces it from definare, ufed for definere, as the Italians Hill fpeak it.
In the general, 'tis agreed to be the moft falutary, to make a fpare Supper, and to eat the more plentifully at Din- ner ; efpecially tor tender, valetudinary People. This is the Sentiment of the Schola Salernitana :
Ex magna Ccsna Stomacho fit maxima <Pcena .- Vt fis Notle levis, fit tibi Ccsna brevis. Yet Bemardinus T'aternus, an eminent Italian Phyfician, maintains the contrary in a Treatife exprefs. See Food.
The Ropnans, we are affur'd, never minded D'mner ; but deferr'd their good Cheer to the Evening, which they made their grand Meal. Dacier.
DIOCESE, the Circuit, or Extent of the Jurifdiftion of a Bifhop, or Arch-Bifhop. See Bishop.
Diocefe is alfo ufed in ancient Authors, &c. for the Pro- vince of a Metropolitan. See Province, and Metropo- litan.
The Word is form'd from the Greek A/otKHo-/?, Govern- ment, Adminifiration, form'd of S'totiiiay which the ancient Gloffaries render adminifiro, moderor, ordino 5 Hence cW- mcts th( TTwMwf, the Adminifration % or Government of A City.
AioinwffK, Dicecefis, was originally a Civil Government, or Prefecture compofed of divers Provinces. The firft Divifion of the Empire into Diocefes is ordinarily afcribed to Conflan- tine; who diflributed the whole Roman State into four, viz. the Diocefe of Italy, the Diocefe oflllyria, that of the Eaft, and that of Africa. And yet longtime before Conftant'ine^ Strabo, who wrote under Tiberius, takes Notice Lib. X1I1. p. 432. that the Romans had divided Afta mtoDiocefes, and complains of the Confufion fuch a Divifion occaiioned in Geography, Afia being no longer divided by Peoples, but by Diocefes, each whereof had a Tribunal, or Court where Juftice was adminifler'd. Conftantine, then, was only the InlHtutor of thofe large Diocefes, which comprehended fe- veral Metropoles, and Governments 5 the former Diocefes only comprehending one Jurifdiftion, or DiftricT:, or the Country that had Reforc to one Judge, as appears from this Paffage in Strabo, and before Strabo, from Cicero him- {bif, Lib. III. Epift. ad Jamil, ep. 9. and Lib.Xill. ep. 6-j.
Thus, at firft, a Province included divers Diocefes 7 and afterwards a Diocefe came to comprize divers Provinces. In After-times the Roman Empire became divided into XIII. Diocefes, or Prefectures ; tho' including Rome, and the fub- urbicury Regions, there were XIV. Thefe XIV Diocefes comprehended 120 Provinces ; Each Province had a Pro- conful, who refided in the Capital, or Metropolis ; And each Diocefe of the Empire had a Conful, who reiided in the principal City of the DiftricT:.
On this Civil Constitution, the Eccleliaftjcal one was afterwards regulated : Each Diocefe had an Ecclcfiailical Vicar or Primate, who judg'd finally of all the Concerns of the Church within his Territory. See Ecclesiastical.
At prefent there is fome further Alteration : For Dio- cefe does not now fignify an Affemblagc of divers Pro- vinces j but is limitted to a fingle Province under a Me- tropolitan, or even to the fingle Jurifdiclion of a Bifhop. Gul. Brito affirms Diocefe to be properly the Territory, and Extent of a Baptifmai, or Parochial Church ; whence divers Authors ufe the Word to fignifie a fimple Parifh. See Parish. DIOCLETIAN Efocha. SeeEpocHA. DIONYSIAN Period. See Period. DlONYSf ACA, Feafts held among the Ancients, in Ho- nour of "Bacchus, on the third Day of September. See Feast.
The Latins call'd them Liber alia, and the Feafl of Vin- tages, by reafon Bacchus, Liber in the Heathen Syftem is reputed the God of Wine 5 fee Varro Lib. 5. See Libe- ralia.
The Word is form'd from the Greek fiovvo-ta., of A/oc^V/of, Bacchus , and that of A/3f, the Genitive of z«uV 3 Jupiter, and Nyfa, a City in Egypt on the Frontiers of Arabia, where Bacchus is faid to have been educated by the Nymphs.
Others derive A/cn<V/of from Du-, and Dy, Lord; and
Nifa, put by Metathefis, or l\anfpofrtion, for $ina 3 So
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