imbecility
(ɪmbɪˈsɪlɪtɪ)
Forms: 6–7 imbecillitie, -ilitie, 6–8 -illity, 7– -ility; (6 -yllyte, -ite, -illyte, -bicillitye, 7 -besilitie).
[a. F. imbécillité (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. imbēcillitātem, n. of quality f. imbēcillus, -is, imbecile. For the single l, see note to the adj.]
The condition or quality of being imbecile.
1. Weakness, feebleness, debility, impotence.
| a 1533 Frith Disput. Purgat. Wks. 31 (R.) Sith we are not of power and habilitie to performe the law of God..lamentyng our imbecillitie that we can do him no further pleasure. 1538 Starkey England ii. i. 176 The imbecyllyte of mannys nature. 1596 P. Barrough Meth. Physick (ed. 3) 458 It is a singular help against the imbecillity of the kidneis. 1624 Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1672) 32 Such [Arches]..for the natural imbecillity of the sharp Angle itself..ought to be exiled from judicious eyes. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 272 If anything can give us a picture of complete imbecility, it is a man when just come into the world. 1783 Johnson Let. to Taylor 22 Nov., Another evidence of its own imbecillity. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 139 The imbecility of the liver is..obvious in most cases [of dyspepsia]. 1838 Sir W. Hamilton Logic xxx. (1866) II. 113 The imbecility of the human intellect in general. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 585 The misery of the Irish people and the imbecility of the Irish administration. |
b. Incompetency or incapacity (to do something).
| 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 265 A tenant for life, for years, at will, or a copyholder, cannot prescribe, by reason of the imbecillity of their estates. 1812 J. J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec 146 Its imbecility to restrain us was apparent. 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Confess. Drunkard, Languid enjoyment of evil with utter imbecility to good. |
c. with an and pl. An instance of weakness, infirmity, or debility.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 Ej, Dyspathies, Metasyncrises, Imbecyllitees, fyrmytudes and sondry other such names. 1619 T. Milles tr. Mexia's, etc. Treas. Anc. & Mod. T. II. 380/2 Catarrhes, rheumes, and other imbecillities. 1727 Swift Gulliver iv. x, Such imbecillities of nature. 1862 H. Spencer First Princ. i. v. §27 (1875) 98 Those imbecilities of the understanding. |
2. Mental or intellectual weakness, esp. as characterizing action; hence, silliness, absurdity, folly; a specimen or example of this.
Medically and pathologically, imbecility is generally used to denote a defect of mental power of less degree than idiocy and not congenital.
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 222 Giue mee leaue to excuse my selfe of so much imbecillitie, as to say, that in these eighteene yeeres..I haue not learned, there is a great difference betwixt the directions and iudgements of experimentall knowledge, and the superficiall coniecture of variable relation. 1803 Med. Jrnl. IX. 339 Can a stronger proof of the fallacy and imbecility of the Brunonian System be required? 1862 Forbes Winslow in Times 2 Jan., I class the case..as a case of imbecility. In medical language it would be termed a case of amentia as distinguished from dementia. 1874 H. Maudsley Respons. in Ment. Dis. iii. 66 Imbecility is..weakness of mind owing to defective mental development. 1888 J. Inglis Tent Life Tigerland 4 The sneers and stupid imbecilities of the untravelled..sceptic. |