pertinency
(ˈpɜːtɪnənsɪ)
[f. L. pertinēnt-em pertinent: see -ency.]
1. The quality of being pertinent or pertaining to the matter in hand; relevancy; appositeness.
| 1598 Florio, Pertenenza, pertinency. 1603 ― Montaigne i. xxv. (1632) 73 Making choice of his reasons, loving pertinency, and by consequence brevitie. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. vii. 316 Because of their pertinency and usefulness in the matter now in hand. 1701 Norris Ideal World i. vi. 320 The pertinency of it to our present concern. 1794 Paley Evid. i. ii. ii. i. (1817) 354 Still less is there of pertinency in Mr. Hume's eulogium. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xxi. vii. (1872) X. 128 Innumerable things, of no pertinency to us, are wearisomely told. |
† b. With pl. An instance of this. Obs.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 208 On occasion to draw out Pertinencies to some emergent. 1665 Wither Lord's Prayer Preamble, Made forth explicitely in every Essential and Circumstantial pertinency thereof. |
† 2. = pertinence 1, appurtenance 1. Obs.
| 1651 G. W. tr. Cowel's Inst. 105 Nor can a prescription be of those pertinencies whose principles have not a perpetuall and durable continuance. [1872 E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 127 The thanage of Kintore which was made over in 1375 ‘saving the pertinencies [pertinenciis] and our kanes’ by Robert II to John de Dunbar, Earl of Moray.] |