constancy
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Latin constantia.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑnstənsi/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒnstənsi/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Hyphenation: con‧stan‧cy
Noun[edit]
constancy (usually uncountable, plural constancies)
- (uncountable) The quality of being constant; steadiness or faithfulness in action, affections, purpose, etc.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- A little water clears us of this deed:
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.
- 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii:
- Punctuality is a species of Constancy, a very unfashionable quality in a Lady.
- 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 68:
- And, I do not know that I should be fond of preaching often; now and then, perhaps, once or twice in the spring, after being anxiously expected for half a dozen Sundays together; but not for a constancy; it would not do for a constancy.
- 1871, Charles Darwin, “7, "On the Races of Man,"”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
- Constancy of character is what is chiefly valued and sought for by naturalists.
- 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 124:
- The overall retention rate of 68 per cent indicates a robust constancy of the linguistic features investigated.
- (countable) An unchanging quality or characteristic of a person or thing.
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- younger spirits […]
whose constancies
Expire before their fashions.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
The quality of being constant
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An unchanging quality or characteristic of a person or thing
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References[edit]
- constancy in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- “constancy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “constancy”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
- Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.