humanity
(hjuːˈmænɪtɪ)
[a. F. humanité (older forms humeinete, humanitet, 12th c. in Littré), ad. L. hūmānitāt-em, f. hūmānus human.]
I. Connected with human.
1. The quality or condition of being human, manhood; the human faculties or attributes collectively; human nature; man in the abstract.
| c 1430 Lydg. Hors, Shepe, & G. (Roxb.) 15 Whan he [Christ]..Toke the clothyng of oure humanyte. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 3 b, The humanite or manhed of our lorde. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 39, I haue thought some of Natures Iouerney-men had made men, and not made them well, they imitated Humanity so abhominably. 1604 ― Oth. i. iii. 317, I would change my Humanity with a Baboone. 1710 Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. Introd. §9 The abstract idea of man, or, if you please, humanity, or human nature. 1773 Ld. Monboddo Lang. (1774) I. Introd. 2 Without the use of reason and speech, we have no pretensions to humanity. 1834 W. India Sketch Bk. I. 23 One of the numerous specimens of rough-spun humanity peculiar to the sea-coast. 1875 E. White Life in Christ iii. xvii. (1878) 206 A..regenerative process..which contemplates the whole humanity, body as well as soul. 1898 New York Voice 5 May 6/3 They denounced slavery as a sin, asserted the humanity of the blacks. |
b. pl. Human attributes; traits or touches of human nature or feeling; points that concern mankind, or appeal to human sensibilities.
| 1800 Coleridge Piccolom. ii. iv. 124 The fair humanities of old religion. 1837 Southey Doctor IV. cxix. 178 In the exercise of their calling, the distinctions of society disappear, and poor human nature is stript to its humanities. 1882 M. Arnold Irish Ess. 122 Individuals with a happy nature and an instinct for the humanities of life. |
2. The human race; mankind; human beings collectively.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 42 Vnlesse he be false, or that he be an enimye to humanitie. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. iii. 184 The greatest part of Humanity is lost in Earth, and their Souls so fixed in that grosser moity of themselves (their Bodies). 1774 Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772. 271 Each shore appeared pleasing to humanity. 1874 Bancroft Footpr. Time i. 59 Their Services to humanity are very great. 1892 Westcott Gospel of Life 109 Each nation contributes something to the fulness of the life of humanity. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 247 The inhabitants..came—a brown mass of naked humanity—down the steep cliff path. |
II. Connected with humane.
3. The character or quality of being humane; behaviour or disposition towards others such as befits a human being. † a. Civility, courtesy, politeness, good behaviour; kindness as shown in courteous or friendly acts, obligingness. (Cf. humane 1 a.)
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Macc. iv. 11 Bi cause of humanytee or curtasie. 1464 Paston Lett. No. 483 II. 147, I beseche you, schew the brynger of this letter sum humanite and worsschipe. c 1530 H. Rhodes Bk. Nurture 138 in Babees Bk. 86 To prate in thy maysters presence, it is no humanitye. 1664 Evelyn Diary 21 July, I din'd with my L. Treasurer..where his Lordship used me with singular humanitie. 1694 Strype Cranmer (1848) I. Pref. 31 William Petyt of the Inner-Temple..did with great humanity communicate unto me his collection of excellent papers. 1794 Godwin Cal. Williams xxvi. 198 The keeper..with his former unconstitutional and ambiguous humanity. |
b. Disposition to treat human beings and animals with consideration and compassion, and to relieve their distresses; kindness, benevolence; = humaneness. (In earlier use not clearly separable from a.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 36 O noble Markys, youre humanitee Asseureth vs to yeue vs hardinesse. 1531 Elyot Gov. ii. viii, Humanitie..is a generall name to those vertues, in whome semeth to be a mutuall concorde and loue, in the nature of man. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xxxvii. 21 Ther is commended humanitie, for that they are redy to releeve the want of their brethren. a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxvi. (1640) 76 The vertue of humanity, that is, of being ready to shew love to man, as he is man. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. vii. 97 Treat the prisoners..with humanity. 1791 Burke App. Whigs Wks. 1842 I. 501 Great tenderness of heart, and humanity of disposition. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 224 The English laws against Popery..were so much mitigated by the prudence and humanity of the Government. |
c. pl. Instances or acts of humanity; † courtesies (obs.); kindnesses, tendernesses.
| 1577–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1805) II. 51 Though thou seemed as enemie..ȝit we found mair humanities and plaisures than damage by thy cumming. 1827 Hood Mids. Fairies lxviii, So are our gentle natures intertwined With sweet humanities. 1832 Southey Hist. Penins. War III. 925 All the courtesies and humanities of generous warfare. 1852 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. xv. 188 Blended graces and beauties, and humanities which are found..in all churches, but not in each separate man. |
4. Learning or literature concerned with human culture: a term including the various branches of polite scholarship, as grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and esp. the study of the ancient Latin and Greek classics. a. sing. (Still used in the Scottish Universities, in the sense of ‘the study of the Latin language and literature’.)
This (= 15–16th c. It. umanità, F. humanité) appears to have represented L. humanitas in its sense of ‘mental cultivation befitting a man, liberal education’, as used by Aulus Gellius, Cicero, and others; hence, taken as = ‘literary culture, polite literature, literæ humaniores’; but it was very often, in scholastic and academic use, opposed to divinity, as if = secular learning.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 121 a/2 He floured in double science..that is to saye dyuynyte and humanyte. 1555 Eden Decades 255 Hauynge..sum knowleage of letters of humanitie. 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619) 97 By reason of prophane literature and humanity opposite unto sacred letters. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. v. §2. 20 There doe arise three knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Humane Philosophy, or Humanitie. 1679 M. Prance Addit. Narr. Pop. Plot 43 He..went to Lisbone, and taught Humanity in the English Colledge there. 1737 J. Chamberlayne's St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. x. 440 In this University [Edinburgh] are taught Divinity, Philosophy.. Oratory, Humanity. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry xxxv. (1840) II. 547 Nicholas the fifth..established public rewards at Rome for composition in the learned languages, appointed professors in humanity. Ibid. 550 Rodolphus Langius..a tolerable Latin poet..opened a school of humanity at Munster: which supplied his countrymen with every species of elegant learning. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. v. i. §27. 348 Lectures in humanity, that is, in classical literature, were, in 1535, established in all colleges of the University of Oxford. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 269 The ‘Professor of Humanity’ has his place in..official lists as if there were nothing antiquated or peculiar in the term. 1865 Gladstone Glean. (1879) VII. 10 The study, of which Greek learning is the main..as well as the most arduous part, made its way, under the well-deserved name of Humanity, to the very head of the Faculty of Arts. 1869 Sir A. Grant Address Students Univ. Edin. 2 Nov., Latin, not altogether without reason called ‘Humanity’ in this University, is the greatest of all keys to the history, the thoughts, and the mind itself of civilized man. 1893 Fowler Hist. C.C.C. ii. 58 (O.H.S.) The first Professor of Humanity [in C.C.C., Oxford] was Ludovicus Vivès, the celebrated Spanish humanist. |
b. pl. (Usually with the; = Fr. les humanités.)
| 1702 Woodroffe Daniel's 70 Weeks Ep. A iij b, What Philosophy, what Humanities, what Law, what Divinity did not his Discourses still infuse? 1828 Scott F.M. Perth vii, I have been bred in Paris, and learned my humanities and my cursus medendi. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Universities Wks. (Bohn) II. 92 An Eton captain..critically learned in all the humanities. 1886 Sir F. Pollock Oxford Lect. iv. (1890) 108 Neither would I have you neglect the humanities. I could wish that every one of you..could enjoy in the originals Homer, and Virgil, and Dante, and Rabelais, and Goethe. 1886 Lowell Wks. (1890) VI. 147 The teaching of the Humanities and of the Hebrew. |
5. attrib. and Comb. a. in sense 4.
| 1565 Harding in Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 496 Some out of the Canonists, some out of the Schoolmen..most of all out of Humanity Bookes, wherein you be pretily seene... As for Diuinity, there appeareth no great knowledge in you. a 1688 Fulman in Fowler Hist. C.C.C. (O.H.S.) 381 note, Ludovicus Vivès lodged in C.C.C., and, by Tradition, was Humanitie Reader to the Coll. 1695 Sibbald Autobiog. (1834) 129, I was a yeer at the Humanity classe. |
b. in sense 3 b.
| 1823 in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 384 To tell the humanity-men to look at home for slaves to free. Ibid., Colonel Wodehouse..opposed this humanity-scheme. 1829 Southey Sir T. More I. 109 The humanity-mongers, who deny the necessity and lawfulness of inflicting capital punishment. |