constancy
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin cōnstantia.
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], page 137, column 1:
- A little Water cleares vs of this deed.
How eaſie is it then? your Conſtancie
Hath left you vnattended.
- 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii:
- Punctuality is a species of Constancy, a very unfashionable quality in a Lady.
- 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for 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, “On the Races of Man”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Part I (On the Descent of Man), page 214:
- 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], page 232, column 2:
- […] yonger ſpirits, […]
whoſe conſtancies
Expire before their faſhions: […]
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]quality of being constant
|
unchanging quality or characteristic of a person or thing
|
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.