sufficience arch.
(səˈfɪʃəns)
Forms: 4–6 sufficiens, 5 suffisiance, suffycyence, -ens, 5–6 sufficians, 5–7 -aunce, 6 suficiens, suffiecence, 4– sufficience.
[a. OF. sufficience or ad. late L. sufficientia, f. sufficient-, -ens, sufficient: see -ence; cf. next and suffisance.]
1. The quality or condition of being sufficient or enough; sufficient supply, means, or resources.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 44 Siþ alle þingis is bifore Crist, þis sufficience lastiþ longe. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 92 If we be bisi for to gete us tresoure in Hevene, God schal send us sufficiens in erde. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxvii. 1 Quho thinkis that he hes sufficience Of gudis hes no indigence. 1546 Langley tr. Pol. Verg. de Invent. i. cxv. 27 b, If it [sc. the Nile] increse unto the depth of twelue or thurtene Cubites it portendeth lacke of Sufficience. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 57 Thinkand gif they saiffit thame selffis they had suffiecence quhill ane better fortoun. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. iii. pr. ii. (1712) 109 That they may have Sufficiences and Abundance within themselves. 1873 Morley Rousseau II. 113 This full and perfect sufficience of life was abruptly disturbed. |
† b. phr. (Sc.) at sufficience or to sufficience (= F. à suffisance): in sufficient quantity, sufficiently. in sufficience: in comfort. Obs.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. lxxxiii. (1869) 48 Now needeth it thanne quod sapience that fulfillinge to sufficience thow fynde it. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 1174 Ȝon folk has fud, trast weill, at sufficians. Ibid. x. 551 Off nolt and scheip thai tuk at sufficiens. 1535 W. Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) II. 705 He wes richt weill sustenit,..At sufficience that neidfull wes to haif, With sic prouisioun that that armet [= hermit] had. 1549 Compl. Scot. iii. 26 Ȝe sal eyt ȝour breyde in suficiens. |
† 2. Capacity; ability; competence. Also, a capable or competent person. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Cor. iii. 5 Not that we ben sufficient for to thenke ony thing of vs, as of vs, but oure sufficience is of God. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 201 The chiefe cite of whom is callede Capua, namede so of the capacite of sufficiaunce. 1607 Rowlands Hist. Guy War Ep. Ded., These Artless Lines, which in the silence of greater sufficiences, serve only to keep Valour from Oblivious destruction. 1669–70 Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 303 They are the judges of the sufficience of the securityes. 1676 Ibid. 498 [He] is very well known for his sufficience and integrity. |
† 3. That which suffices for one's needs; satisfaction of one's needs; sustenance. Obs.
| c 1450 Mankind 731 in Macro Plays 27 Wepynge, sythynge, & sobbynge, were my suffycyens. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxi. 100 With gredines I sie this world ourgane, And sufficience dwellis nocht bot in heavin. 1578 Chr. Prayers in Priv. Prayers (1851) 513 Draw the soul, that thirsteth after thee, to the rivers of everlasting sufficience, which are above. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 15 This whereof wee treat they neede not, as finding all sufficience in their All-sufficient Creator. 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 168 God is all sufficient, Gen. 17. 1. and giues sufficience to all his creatures. |
† 4. = self-sufficience. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Cor. ix. 8 To make al grace abounde in ȝou, that ȝe in alle thingis euermore hauynge al sufficience. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. i. 4 God contemplating himself beholds in his Divine Essence or Sufficience. |