mutability
(mjuːtəˈbɪlɪtɪ)
[a. F. mutabilité, ad. L. mūtābilitās: see next and -ity.]
1. Disposition to change, variableness, inconstancy.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 851 Now sith hire whiel by no way may soiorne, what wastow if hire mutabilite Ryght as þi seluen list wol don by the. 1412–20 Lydg. Troy Bk. i. v. (1513) C j b, They saye that chaunge and mutabylyte Apropred ben to femynyte. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 191 The Duke of Somerset, was incontinently, for his greate mutabilitie and lightnes, behedded at Exam. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. vii. §1 It would argue mutability in God to revoke that Law, and establish another instead of it. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 162 ¶6 This Mutability of Temper and Inconsistency with our selves is the greatest Weakness of human Nature, so [etc.]. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xviii. 77 He had himself experienced the mutability of the public taste. 1883 L. Villari Machiavelli & Times ii. i. III. 242 Of his easy mutability we find proofs in two of the various Discorsi written by him [sc. Guicciardini]. |
2. a. Liability to change.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 223 For truly the firste trawthe whiche is God may not be where mutabilite is founde. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 433 That heavenly kingdome, which is not subject to mutabilitie or chaunge. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. ii. §6 The law whereby he worketh is eternall, and therefore can haue no shew or cullor of mutabilitie. 1622 Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xvi. iv, How slippery are the stations of earthly honors, and subject to continuall mutabilitie. 1791 Cowper Yardley Oak 70 What exhibitions various hath the world Witness'd of mutability in all That we account most durable below! 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvii. 389, I endeavoured to satisfy myself of the mutability which had been ascribed to them [i.e. the veins in glaciers]. |
b. An instance of this.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. i. 20 Prosperus men prouidis nocht to resist the occasions of the mutabiliteis. 1598 Yong Diana 67 What place is there so strong, where one may be safe from the mutabilities of time? 1648 Chas. I Declar. 22 Nov. Wks. (1662) 293 It is the humour of those who are of this Weather-cock-like disposition to love nothing but mutabilities. 1711 Shaftesbury Misc. Refl. ii. iii. Charact. III. 95 We Islanders, fam'd for other Mutabilitys, are particularly noted for the Variableness..of our Weather. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets iii. 78 Simonides moralizes upon the mutabilities of life. 1888 Plumptre Ken I. p. xi. note, One could scarcely find a more striking instance of the mutabilities of history. |
3. Biol. The tendency to undergo, or capacity for undergoing, mutation.
| 1908 J. A. Thomson Heredity iii. 92 It is possible that the prolific multiplication in a new environment may have had something to do with the awakening of the impulsive mutability [in Œnothera lamarckiana]. 1916 Genetics I. 606 (heading) Mutability in different species of Drosophila. 1929 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XV. 834 That gene..does not influence the mutability of the miniature-gamma gene. 1958 Nature 11 Oct. 984/1 The sites in each segment have been plotted in order of decreasing mutability for each mutagen. 1974 Ibid. 9 Aug. 493/2 There was no significant difference in mutability between the two strains. |