taciturnity
(tæsɪˈtɜːnɪtɪ)
Also 5 -te(e, 6 -ty(e, 6–7 -tie.
[a. F. taciturnité (14th c.), or ad. L. taciturnitās, f. taciturn-us: see prec. and -ity.]
1. Habitual silence or disinclination to conversation; reservedness in speech; a taciturn character or state.
| c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. xli. 112 Oþer whiles he aunsuerde, lest by his taciturnite occasion of offendynge miȝt haue be yoven. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. l. 99 b/2 In the sayde monasterie was so grete tacyturnytee and scylence. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 145, I cannot in this poinct vse taciturnitie and silence. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. ii. 75 The secrets of nature Haue not more gift in taciturnitie. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 261 ¶1 My natural Taciturnity hindered me from shewing my self to the best Advantage. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. iii. viii. (1861) 107 Our ancestors were noted as being men of truly Spartan taciturnity. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax ix, After which brief reply John relapsed into taciturnity. |
2. Sc. Law. The silence of the creditor occasioning the extinction of an obligation in a shorter period than forty years' prescription: it being presumed that the creditor would not have been so long silent if the debt had not been paid or the obligation implemented.
| 1765–8 Erskine Instit. Law Scot. iii. vii. §29 (1773) 533 No general rule can be laid down, at what precise times actions may be lost by taciturnity. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 967/2 The only cases in which extinction by such taciturnity has been recognised were those of bills of exchange, prior to the introduction of the sexennial prescription. |