Etymology Borrowed from Latin per sē (“by itself”), from per (“by, through”) and sē (“itself, himself, herself, themselves”).
1
Without determination by or involvement of extraneous factors; by its very nature.
Near-synonyms: by definition, by nature, essentially, in essence, ipso facto, intrinsically; see also Thesaurus:intrinsically
Some people say that a hangover is caused by impurities in the drink, not by the alcohol per se.
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They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
A proposition is per se known as regards itself , but not per se known as regards us, when it has no medium of proof a priori, nor is its truth directly and immediately evident to us on first apprehending the terms.1877, Walter Henry Hill, Elements of Philosophy: Comprising Logic and Ontology Or General Metaphysics, page 220:
What words actionable. to subject the offender to contempt, and deprive him of public confidence, and to accuse one who is a notary public of procuring a false affidavit to be made before him is libelous and actionable per se.1909, Emlin McClain, A Digest of Decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa: From the Organization of the Territory Until the End of January, 1908 ..., page 3672:
Always have the greatest excesses and the most reprehensible practices been committed when backed up by or given the sanction of religion. But all this represents no derogation of the original phallic cult per se. It merely proves that the gods have always been what we have made them.1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page vi:
2
Nonstandard, In the negative In a true or literal sense; as one would expect from the name or description.
It's not a museum per se, but they do have some interesting artefacts.
I take photographs. But I'm not a photographer. Per se. Right. Not per se. Right.a. 1998, anonymous conversationalists, quoted in, 1998, Tom Chiarella, Writing Dialogue, Story Press, page 12
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It's not a race against the competition per se: that's not how it feels to me when I'm working on a project.2012 March 22, Pamela Burnard, Musical Creativities in Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 202:
Annoyed, frustrated, edgy, but not angry per se.2012, Tes Hilaire, Deliver Me From Temptation: A Novel of the Paladin Warriors:
As we shall see, since the 1960s, the ELN, although not a religious movement per se, represents an interesting amalgam of beliefs that helped serve in recruitment, commitment, and identification of a revolutionary belief and ritual.2013 February 12, Kjell-Ake Nordquist, Gods and Arms: On Religion and Armed Conflict, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 70:
Through this lingual haze we quickly established that Suleyman was a member of “Batono” Abashidze's personal militia, but not a policeman per se2015, Thomas Goltz, Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the ...:
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Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences As the principle of its own determination and positing itself.
Everything not applying per se in one of these two senses is called an accident.1988, J. van Rijen, Aspects of Aristotle’s Logic of Modalities, page 137:
Peter is per se alive, endowed with intellect, and the faculty of laughter, the artist is per se one who fashions objects. But Peter is per accidens a sufferer from influenzaa. 2005, Jacques Maritain, An EPZ Introduction to Philosophy, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 153:
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Thus, unless there exists some being that exists per se, the origination of esse in a chain of composites itself remains unexplained and quite mysterious. And the existence of a being that exists per se is affirmed through a denial of an infinite regress of essence-esse composites causing other such composites.2015, Gaven Kerr, Aquinas's Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia:
Aquinas rejects this position, because then God would not be per se necessary, but would be necessitated by his own divine nature to create. Hence to be per se necessary, God must be free to create.2022 October 15, Gaven Kerr, Collected Articles on the Existence of God, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, page 218:
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Law Not leaving discretion to the judge to take into account additional factors that could rebut the judgment, deriving the qualification from the statute.
The law makes drunk driving illegal per se.
In an effort to assist states that may have recently adopted or expect to adopt administrative per se, NHTSA has collected sample copies of forms and a brief description of the administrative procedures from selected states with in-place programs.1986, Administrative Per Se: A Summary of State Forms and Procedures:
Etymology Borrowed from Latin per sē (“by itself”), from per (“by, through”) and sē (“itself, himself, herself, themselves”).
1
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences Positing itself and being a principle of its own determination.
Hence, God would have to be the immediate per se cause of some natural motions, but not of all. But no known natural motion is without a natural motion as its immediate per se cause.1980, Mortimer Adler, How to Prove There Is a God: Mortimer J. Adler's Writings and Thoughts About God, Open Court, →ISBN, page 197:
Before stating at 74b5ff. that the connection between the subject and predicate of the premisses of scientific inferences must not be accidental but per se, he introduces the technical terms 'about all' ( 'kata pantos' ) and 'per se' (' kath' hauto ') in order to clarify the meaning of this proviso.1988, J. van Rijen, Aspects of Aristotle’s Logic of Modalities, page 137:
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The per se cause of the house is the building skill and the craftsman who exercises it, while the per accidens cause is the fair-skinned or the artistic man. Alexander says: 'Aristotle says that just as anything that exists is one thing per se and another per accidens (by “being what it is per se” he means the substance, and by "what is per accidens" he means the attributes of the substance), so a cause is one thing per se and another per accidens.2014, Barrie Fleet, Simplicius: On Aristotle Physics 2, page 97:
They hold to the impossibility of an actual per se infinity, because in a per se series the effects have a dependence on their causes, in which case if the series were infinite, the ultimate effect would be dependent on an infinite chain of causes; and since an infinity cannot be traversed, the being of such an effect would never be explained.2015, Gaven Kerr, Aquinas's Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia:
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Law That does not leave discretion to the judge to take into account additional factors that could rebut the judgment, deriving the qualification from the statute.
Until recently Denmark hesitated to adopt a formal per se law, preferring to give more discretion to its judges, but the general practice was to take blood tests and to convict those accused under the classical law if the blood alcohol concentration was greater than 100 mg./100 ml.1981, Hugh Laurence Ross, Deterrence of the Drinking Driver: An International Survey, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation, page 80:
CBS (441 U.S. 1 [1979]) explains, the per se rule against price-fixing isn't to be taken literally.2006, Sheldon Kimmel, How and why the Per Se Rule Against Price-fixing Went Wrong, page 1: