† magiˈstrality Obs.
[f. prec. + -ity.]
The quality or condition of being magistral. a. The standing of a master or mistress; the right to lay down the law or to dogmatize; authoritative character. b. quasi-concr. a dogmatic utterance; in Med. a special prescription.
| a. 1603 North's Plutarch, Seneca (1612) 1213 Agrippina..thinking she could by her magistralitie remedie this well inough. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. viii. §5 To those that seeke truth and not Magistralitie it cannot but seeme a Matter of great profit. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 71 The authority and magistrality of the first assertor of it. |
| b. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. x. §8 The phisitians haue frustrated the fruite of tradition & experience by their magistralities. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 572 Humane Magistralities, self-weaved Ratiocinations,..have laid..claim to the highest advance of humane learning. |