uberty

English

Etymology

From Middle French uberté, from Latin ūbertās, from ūber.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈjuːbəti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈjubɚti/, /ˈjubɚɾi/

Noun

uberty (uncountable)

1. (now rare) Fertile growth, abundance, fruitfulness; copiousness, plenty.
   • c. 1412, John Lydgate, A Tale of Two Merchants/Fabula duorum mercatorum, l. 613

     'And yiff a tre with frut be ovirlade'/In his epistles he seith, as ye may see,/'Both braunche and bough wol enclyne and fade,/And greyne oppressith to moche vberte:/Right so it farith of fals felicite,/That of his weighte mesure doth exceede/Than of a fal gretly is to dreede'.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
     , Folio Society 2006, vol.1, p.209:

     to this day they yet enjoy that naturall ubertie and fruitfulnesse, which without labouring toyle, doth in such plenteous abundance furnish them with all necessary things […].

   • 1913/1998, Charles Sanders Peirce, "An Essay toward Improving Our Reasoning in Security and in Uberty" (1913), first published in The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings Volume 2 (Indiana University Press, 1998) p. 465

     But it does not contribute to the uberty of reasoning, which far more calls for solicitous care.