vastity

English

Etymology

vast +‎ -ity, from Middle French vastité or its source, Latin vastitas. Compare Middle English wastite.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɑːstɪti/, /ˈvɑːstəti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvæstɪti/, /ˈvæstəti/

Noun

vastity (countable and uncountable, plural vastities)

1. (obsolete) Emptiness or desolation.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vii:

     Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure, that […] all good fellowship, peace, mirth, and plenty died with him, tanquam eodem sepulchro cum Leone condita lugebantur; for it was a golden age whilst he lived, but after his decease an iron season succeeded […], wars, plagues, vastity, discontent.

2. Vastness.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
     , II.12:

     there is no […] soule so skittish and stubborne, that hath not a feeling of some reverence in considering the clowdy vastitie and gloomie canapies of our churches […].