The present paper is an attempt to reconcile the logical and etymological meanings of the word Distributed.
Speaking roughly, distributed means universal: "a term is said to be distributed when it is taken universally, so as to stand for everything it is capable of being applied to."—Whately, i. § 5.
Speaking more closely, it means universal in one premiss; it being a rule in the ordinary logic that no conclusion is possible unless one premiss be, either negatively or affirmatively, universal.
Assuredly there is no etymological connexion between the two words. Hence De Morgan writes:—"By distributed is here meant universally spoken of. I do not use this term in the present work, because I do not see why, in any deducible meaning of the word distributed, it can be applied to universal as distinguished from particular."—Formal Logic, chap. vii.
Neither can it be so applied. It is nevertheless an accurate term.
Let it mean related to more than one class, and the power of the prefix dis-, at least, becomes intelligible.
For all the purposes of logic this is not enough; inasmuch as the particular character of the relation (all-important in the structure of the syllogism) is not, at present, given. It is enough, however, to give import to the syllable dis-.
In affirmative propositions this relation is connective on both sides, i. e. the middle term forms part of both the others. In negative propositions this relation is connective on one side, disjunctive on the other.
In—