HUMANE O E D
[A common earlier spelling of HUMAN, which became restricted after 1700 to a particular group of senses; the form and mod. stress seem to show more immediate association with L. h{umac}m{amac}nus: cf. germane.]
1. Characterized by such behaviour or disposition towards others as befits a man. {dag}a. Gentle or kindly in demeanour or action; civil, courteous, friendly, obliging. Obs. (passing gradually into b.)
c1500 Melusine xx. 111 Be meke, humble, swete, curtoys & humayne, both vnto grete & lesse. 1530 PALSGR. 316/1 Humayne, courtoyse or belongyng to the nature of a man, humayn. 1555 EDEN Decades 149 Thinhabitauntes enterteined them very frendly [margin Humane people]. 1632 LITHGOW Trav. IX. 387 The people are very humane, ingenious, eloquent and pleasant. 1675 MARVELL Corr. Wks. 1872-5 II. 489 Humane civility. 1784 COWPER Task v. 469 That humane address And sweetness.
b. Marked by sympathy with and consideration for the needs and distresses of others; feeling or showing compassion and tenderness towards human beings and the lower animals; kind, benevolent. (In early use not clearly distinguishable from a.)
1603 HOLLAND Plutarch's Mor. 1270 As his martiall valour is humane [{phi}{iota}{lambda}{gaacu}{nu}{theta}{rho}{omega}{pi}{omicron}{nu}], so his humanitie is valorous. a1774 PEARCE Serm. IV. xiv. (R.), Christianity (the most compassionate and humane religion in the world). 1802 M. EDGEWORTH Moral T. I. xv. 124 The humane spirit of the law, which supposes every man..innocent till proved.. guilty. 1814 D. H. O'BRIEN Captiv. & Escape 79 The jailer here..was the most humane man in that situation I ever knew. 1841 TRENCH Parables viii. (1877) 159 It is just in man to be merciful..to be humane is human. 1857 BUCKLE Civiliz. I. viii. 480 The humane and enlightened measures of Henry IV.
c. Humane Society: title of a society for the rescue of drowning persons.
The Royal Humane Society was founded in 1774.S
d. Applied to certain weapons or implements which inflict less pain than others of their kind, spec. applied to an implement for the painless slaughtering of cattle.
2. Applied to those branches of study or literature (liter¾ humaniores) which tend to humanize or refine, as the ancient classics, rhetoric, and poetry; hence, elegant, polite. (See HUMANITY 4.)
1691 WOOD Ath. Oxon. I. 269 Edward Grant..the most noted Latinist and Grecian of his time. He was well skill'd in all kind of humane literature. 1701 tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers (1702) 174 To learn Humane Learning; that is to say, to understand the Greek Poets and Orators and to write well in that Tongue. 1712 HENLEY Spect. No. 396 {page}2 An uncommon Mastery in the more humane and polite Part of Letters. 1843 LYTTON Last Bar. IV. v, Thou art acquainted, doubtless..with the Humaner Letters. 1877 SYMONDS Renaiss. in Italy, Reviv. Learning ii. 71 note, The word Humanism has a German sound, and is in fact modern. Yet the generic phrase umanitˆ for humanistic culture, and the name Sumanista for a professor of humane studies, are both pure Italian.
HUMANITY
II. Connected with humane.
3. The character or quality of being humane; behaviour or disposition towards others such as befits a human being. {dag}a. Civility, courtesy, politeness, good behaviour; kindness as shown in courteous or friendly acts, obligingness. (Cf. HUMANE 1a.)
1382 WYCLIF 2 Macc. iv. 11 Bi cause of humanytee or curtasie. 1464 Paston Lett. No. 483 II. 147, I beseche you, schew the brynger of this letter sum humanite and worsschipe. c1530 H. RHODES Bk. Nurture 138 in Babees Bk. 86 To prate in thy maysters presence, it is no humanitye. 1664 EVELYN Diary 21 July, I din'd with my L. Treasurer..where his Lordship used me with singular humanitie. 1694 STRYPE Cranmer (1848) I. Pref. 31 William Petyt of the Inner-Temple..did with great humanity communicate unto me his collection of excellent papers. 1794 GODWIN Cal. Williams xxvi. 198 The keeper..with his former unconstitutional and ambiguous humanity.
b. Disposition to treat human beings and animals with consideration and compassion, and to relieve their distresses; kindness, benevolence; = HUMANENESS. (In earlier use not clearly separable from a.)
c1386 CHAUCER Clerk's T. 36 O noble Markys, youre humanitee Asseureth vs to yeue vs hardinesse. 1531 ELYOT Gov. II. viii, Humanitie..is a generall name to those vertues, in whome semeth to be a mutuall concorde and loue, in the nature of man. 1571 GOLDING Calvin on Ps. xxxvii. 21 Ther is commended humanitie, for that they are redy to releeve the want of their brethren. a1639 W. WHATELY Prototypes II. xxvi. (1640) 76 The vertue of humanity, that is, of being ready to shew love to man, as he is man. 1732 T. LEDIARD Sethos II. VII. 97 Treat the prisoners..with humanity. 1791 BURKE App. Whigs Wks. 1842 I. 501 Great tenderness of heart, and humanity of disposition. 1855 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. xii. III. 224 The English laws against Popery..were so much mitigated by the prudence and humanity of the Government.
c. pl. Instances or acts of humanity; {dag}courtesies (obs.); kindnesses, tendernesses.
1577-87 HOLINSHED Scot. Chron. (1805) II. 51 Though thou seemed as enemie..{ygh}it we found mair humanities and plaisures than damage by thy cumming. 1827 HOOD Mids. Fairies lxviii, So are our gentle natures intertwined With sweet humanities. 1832 SOUTHEY Hist. Penins. War III. 925 All the courtesies and humanities of generous warfare. 1852 ROBERTSON Serm. Ser. III. xv. 188 Blended graces and beauties, and humanities which are found..in all churches, but not in each separate man.
4. Learning or literature concerned with human culture: a term including the various branches of polite scholarship, as grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and esp. the study of the ancient Latin and Greek classics. a. sing. (Still used in the Scottish Universities, in the sense of Ôthe study of the Latin language and literatureÕ.)
This (= 15-16th c. It. umanitˆ, F. humanitŽ) appears to have represented L. humanitas in its sense of Ômental cultivation befitting a man, liberal educationÕ, as used by Aulus Gellius, Cicero, and others; hence, taken as = Ôliterary culture, polite literature, liter¾ humanioresÕ; but it was very often, in scholastic and academic use, opposed to divinity, as if = secular learning.