contrariety
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French contrariété, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin contrarietas, from contrarius, from contra (“against”). Compare contrary.
Pronunciation
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Noun
contrariety (countable and uncountable, plural contrarieties)
- Opposition or contrariness; cross-purposes, marked contrast.
- Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
- 1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin 2003, p.61:
- This contrariety of humours betwixt my father and my uncle, was the source of many a fraternal squabble.
- 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:
- The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, thee was no contrariety between that and the current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.
- 2011, Tim Blanning, "The reinvention of the night", Times Literary Supplement, 21 Sep.:
- At the heart of his argument is the contrariety between day and night, light and dark.