subterranity
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Apparently from subterrany + -ity.[1] Compare subterraneity.
Noun
[edit]subterranity (plural subterranities)
- (obsolete) An underground place; a subterrany.
- 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of Crystall”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, pages 54–55:
- […] as we may conceive in ſtones and gems, as Diamonds, Beryls, Saphires and the like, whoſe generation we cannot with ſatisfaction confine unto the remote activity of the Sun, or the common operation of coldneſſe in the earth, but may more ſafely referre it unto a lapidificall ſuccity, and congelitive principle which determines prepared materials unto ſpecificall concretions. And therefore I feare we commonly conſider ſubterranities not in contemplations ſufficiently reſpective unto the creation.
References
[edit]- ^ “subterranity, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “subterranity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)