penality Now rare.
(pɪˈnælɪtɪ)
[a. F. pénalité (15th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) or ad. med.L. pœnālitās penalty, mulct (Du Cange), f. L. pœnāl-is: see penal a.1 and -ity. Cf. It. penalità ‘penaltie, forfeiture’ (Florio).]
† 1. Painfulness; pain, suffering: = penalty 1.
| c 1495 Epitaffe, etc. in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 391 Your plesures been past vnto penalyte. 1502 W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione ii. xii. 194 In greuouse temptacions & tribulacions, & penalite of lyfe. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1060 Counnyng surgeans..To cure this gentylman from penalite. |
† 2. = penalty 2. Obs.
| 1531 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 101 Suche penalytes as hathe..ben..accustomyd to be payed. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII 34 b, [They] banyshed oute of their landes and seigniories all Englishe..commodities vpon great forfeytures and penalities. |
3. The character or fact of being penal.
| 1650 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vi. (ed. 2) 18 Many of the Ancients denied the Antipodes, and some unto the penality [so ed. 1658; edd. 1646, 1676 penalty] of contrary affirmations. 1802–12 Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) II. 415 Respect..to the general nature, to the penality or non⁓penality, of the suit. Ibid. III. 253 Offences occupying a high rank in the scale of criminality or penality. |