Part 10

Fac"ti*tive (?). a. [See Fact.] 1. Causing; causative.

2. (Gram.) Pertaining to that relation which is proper when the act, as of a transitive verb, is not merely received by an object, but produces some change in the object, as when we say, He made the water wine.

Sometimes the idea of activity in a verb or adjective involves in it a reference to an effect, in the way of causality, in the active voice on the immediate objects, and in the passive voice on the subject of such activity. This second object is called the factitive object.

J. W. Gibbs.

Fac"tive (?), a. Making; having power to make. [Obs.] "You are . . . factive, not destructive." Bacon.

||Fac"to (?), adv. [L., ablative of factum deed, fact.] (Law) In fact; ||by the act or fact.

De facto. (Law) See De facto.

Fac"tor (?), n. [L. factor a doer: cf. F. facteur a factor. See Fact.] 1. (Law) One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker. Story. Wharton.

My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.

Marlowe.

2. A steward or bailiff of an estate. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

3. (Math.) One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied together, form a product.

4. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result; a constituent.

The materal and dynamical factors of nutrition.

H. Spencer.

Fac"tor, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Factored (-t?rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Factoring.] (Mach.) To resolve (a quantity) into its factors.

Fac"tor*age (?), n. [Cf. F. factorage.] The allowance given to a factor, as a compensation for his services; -- called also a commission.

Fac"tor*ess (?), n. A factor who is a woman. [R.]

Fac*to"ri*al (?), a. 1. Of or pertaining to a factory. Buchanan.

2. (Math.) Related to factorials.

Fac*to"ri*al, n. (Math.) (a) pl. A name given to the factors of a continued product when the former are derivable from one and the same function F(x) by successively imparting a constant increment or decrement h to the independent variable. Thus the product F(x).F(x + h).F(x + 2h) . . . F[x + (n-1)h] is called a factorial term, and its several factors take the name of factorials. Brande & C.

(b) The product of the consecutive numbers from unity up to any given number.

Fac"tor*ing (?), n. (Math.) The act of resolving into factors.

Fac"tor*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Factorized (-?zd); p. pr. & vb. n. Factorizing (-?"z?ng).] (Law) (a) To give warning to; -- said of a person in whose hands the effects of another are attached, the warning being to the effect that he shall not pay the money or deliver the property of the defendant in his hands to him, but appear and answer the suit of the plaintiff. (b) To attach (the effects of a debtor) in the hands of a third person ; to garnish. See Garnish. [Vt. & Conn.]

Fac"tor*ship, n. The business of a factor.

Fac"to*ry (?), n.; pl. Factories (-r&?;z). [Cf. F. factorerie.] 1. A house or place where factors, or commercial agents, reside, to transact business for their employers. "The Company's factory at Madras." Burke.

2. The body of factors in any place; as, a chaplain to a British factory. W. Guthrie.

3. A building, or collection of buildings, appropriated to the manufacture of goods; the place where workmen are employed in fabricating goods, wares, or utensils; a manufactory; as, a cotton factory.