inequality
(ɪnɪˈkwɒlɪtɪ)
[a. OF. inequalité, 14th c. in Littré (= mod.F. inégalité), ad. med.L. inæquālitās, f. inæquālis inequal.]
The state or condition of being unequal; want of equality.
1. Want of equality between persons or things; disparity: a. in respect of magnitude, quantity, number, intensity, or other physical quality.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. iii. i, Iustyce commutatiue..onely considerynge the inequalitie, wherby the one thynge excedeth the other, indeuoureth to brynge them bothe to an equalitie. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 27 Proportion of inæqualitie is, when two things of vnequall quantitie are compared togither. 1674 Boyle Excell. Theol. ii. iv. 177 It remains doubtful, whether the differing sizes [of the fixed stars]..proceed from a real inequality of bulk, or onely from an inequality of distance. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. (1869) I. i. x. ii. 119 Inequalities in the wages of labour and profits of stock. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 430 Should the inequality of tension be occasioned by any original inequality of thickness in the strands. 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. III. xiii. 94 The growing inequality of fortunes had broken through this useful custom. |
b. In respect of dignity, rank, or circumstances: Social disparity; the fact of occupying a more or a less advantageous position.
| 1484 Caxton Chivalry 82 Pryde is a vyce of Inequalyte or to be inegal to other and not lyke. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 103 The apostles..amongst whom was no superiority, inequalitie, or principallitie at all. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 135 Betwixt Othoman and her was great inequality..she was (as she said) but meanly born, and therefore was not to expect so great a match. 1791 Boswell Johnson 13 Apr. an. 1773, She wondered how he could reconcile..his notions of inequality and subordination with wishing well to all mankind. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. i. 1 The inequality between the rich and the poor shocked him. |
c. In respect of excellence, power, or adequacy. Also, A condition of superiority or inferiority in relation to something, esp. the condition of being unequal to a task, insufficiency, inadequacy.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. Ded. (Arb.) 5 There seemed too me no lesse inequalitye betwene the tytle and the booke, then if a man woulde professe to wryte of Englande, and entreated onelye of Trumpington. 1694 South Twelve Serm. (1698) III. 265 The Nature of the Things themselves, which are the Subject matter of the Christian Religion..Their surpassing Greatness and Inequality to the mind of Man. 1708 S. Centlivre Busie Body Ded., Conscious of the Inequality of a Female Pen to so Masculine an Attempt. 1777 Watson Philip II (1793) II. xiv. 233 When she considered the inequality of the dispute between him and the Flemings. 1899 Cheyne in Expositor Apr. 258 There are no doubt stylistic inequalities in the different Psalms. |
2. † a. Of persons: Unequal treatment of others; unfair dealing, unfairness, partiality. b. Or things: Want of due proportion, uneven distribution. With an and pl., an instance of this.
| 1538 Starkey England ii. ii. 183 The chefe..cause of al sedycyon..that ys to say, the inequalyte of dystrybutyon of the commyn offyceys. 1552 Latimer 5th Serm. Lord's Prayer Wks. (Parker Soc.) I. 399 What meaneth God by this inequality, that he giveth to some an hundred pound; unto this man five thousand pound; unto this man in a manner nothing at all? 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics 478 If we shall not be liberal to one another, it is a strange inequality. 1740 Warburton Div. Legat. v. iv. Wks. 1811 V. 145 We sometimes find men complaining of inequalities in events, which were indeed the effects of a most equal Providence. 1858 Bright Sp. Reform 27 Oct. (1876) 281, I could show you inequalities as great and scandalous in the manner in which the income-tax..presses upon the owners of the soil and those engaged in professions and trades chiefly carried on in towns. |
3. Want of uniformity in a thing, person, or process; unevenness, irregularity, variableness: a. in surface or outline. With an and pl.: an irregularity of surface or outline; a rise or fall of the ground.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 330 The roughness and inequality of the place grieved, one part being higher then another. 1645 Boate Irel. Nat. Hist. (1652) 5 The inequality of the coast, and of the great Bayes and Forelands. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1692) 109 To find out the side towards which the inequality of the ground might more easily permit it to rowl its shell. 1801 W. Coxe Tour Monmouth. I. 117 The distant country is broken into fine inequalities of hill and dale. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. i. 4 These inequalities in the surface of the earth which we call Alps. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 135 The water soon finds out some slight inequalities of surface. |
b. in motion, action, or condition; in duration or recurrence; in rate or proportion; in manner, quality, degree, or other respect in which a thing is liable to variation. With an and pl.: an instance of such unevenness.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §700 Inequality [of sounds], not Stayed vpon, but Passing, is rather an Encrease of Sweetnesse. 1638 F. Junius Paint. of Ancients 316 Whatsoever doth not hang well together, bewrayeth it selfe..by an inequalitie of colour. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. ii. xlvi. 308 The inequality of the Pulse continuing is an evil sign. 1748 Anson's Voy. i. viii. 77 These tempests..were yet rendered more mischievous to us by their inequality, and the deceitful intervals which they at some-times afforded. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) II. ii. ii. 76 The inequality of our climate. 1797 Coleridge in Jos. Cottle Early Recoll. (1837) I. 250 In Wordsworth there are no inequalities. 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 55 note, The inequalities observable both in his style and versification. 1833 N. Arnott Physics (ed. 5) II. 9 Owing merely to an inequality of temperature. |
4. Astron. A deviation from uniformity in the motion of a heavenly body.
The older astronomers reckoned four inequalities, two common to planets and the moon, and two confined to the moon. first inequality: that which is due to the eccentricity of the orbit, and the acceleration of motion at a planet's perihelion or the moon's perigee. second inequality: that which arises from the obliquity of the direction of the planet's motion to the radius vector of its orbit; = evection. third inequality: = variation (of the moon). fourth inequality: that due to the more rapid motion of the moon when the earth is in perihelion; also called annual inequality or annual equation. Later astronomers have discovered several others, as parallactic inequality (see quot. 1867–76); periodic inequality, the comparatively short recurring orbital perturbation due to the attraction of another body, as the great inequality of Jupiter and Saturn.
| 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 758 The second Inequality of the Moon is explained by a little Circle. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 427 By any single observation of a Planet..to clear it of its Second Inequality, and find its Distance from the Sun. 1728 Pemberton Newton's Philos. 228 Sir Isaac Newton has computed the very quantity of many of the moon's inequalities. 1816 Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 277 Besides these two great inequalities, there are ten others..to which Jupiter is subject. 1831 Brewster Newton (1855) I. xi. 262 The annual inequality of the moon depending on the position of the earth in its orbit. 1833 Herschel Astron. xi. 347 An irregularity, which is well known to astronomers by the name of the great inequality of Jupiter and Saturn. 1867–76 Chambers Astron. i. vii. (ed. 3) 80 The Variation..was the first lunar inequality explained by Sir I. Newton on the theory of gravitation. Ibid., The Parallactic Inequality arises from the sensible difference in the disturbing influence exerted by the Sun on the Moon, according as the latter is in that part of its orbit nearest to, or most removed from, the Sun. Ibid., The Secular Acceleration of the Moon's mean motion..This inequality was detected by Halley in 1693. Ibid. 81 Hansen elucidated, a few years ago, two other inequalities in the Moon's motion, due, the one directly and the other indirectly, to the influence of Venus. |
5. Math. a. The relation between quantities that are unequal in value or magnitude. sign of inequality, either of the signs > (‘is greater than’) and < (‘is less than’). b. An expression of this relation, consisting of two unequal quantities connected by either of these signs: distinguished from equation.
| 1875 Todhunter Algebra (ed. 7) li. §674 If the signs of all the terms of an inequality be changed the sign of inequality must be reversed. |