supinity

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

supine +‎ -ity, from Latin supinitas.

Noun[edit]

supinity (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) The quality of being supine; negligence; laziness; heedlessness.
    • 1658, Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial[1], The Epistle:
      The Supinity of elder dayes hath left so much in silence, or time hath so martyred the Records, that the most industrious heads do finde no easie work to erect a new Britannia.
    • 1769, Pierre Henri Treyssac de Vergy, The Mistakes of the Heart: or Memoirs of Lady Carolina Pelham and Lady Victoria Nevil, London: J. Murdoch, Volume 3, Letter 5, p. 41,[2]
      It was a mistake of my heart, a deceit of my imagination. Carolina, who ever thought it would at last prove so, often inveighed against my supinity, and advised me to listen to reason.—I never did []
    • 1922, Sterling P. King, chapter 9, in The Railways and the People[3], Boston: The Four Seas Company, page 169:
      If the government bestows credit upon big financial institutions and then borrows it back it is certainly a manifestation of governmental supinity.