unicity
(juːˈnɪsɪtɪ)
[ad. med.L. *ūnicitās (whence F. unicité, It. unicitá, Sp. unicidad), or f. L. ūnic-us one, unique: see -ity.]
1. The fact of being or consisting of one in number or kind; oneness.
| 1691 J. Howe Wks. (1834) 147/2 The most unquestionable unity or unicity of the Godhead. 1694 R. Burthogge Reason & Nat. Spirits 166 Composition is Unity, but simplicity is Unicity. 1817 Coleridge ‘Blessed are ye that sow’ 55 For Unity or Unition, and indistinguishable Unicity or Oneness, are incompatible terms. 1849 Alford Grk. Testament I. 608 The καινότης of this commandment consists in its simplicity and (so to speak) unicity. 1880 C. I. Black Proselytes of Ishmael 301 What our so-called Unitarians teach is..the Unicity of the Godhead. |
b. Med. The theory that syphilis is caused by only one kind of venereal virus.
| 1861 Bumstead Ven. Dis. 349 Some explanation..of what was called by its discoverer [Ricord] the ‘unicity’ of syphilis. |
2. The fact or quality of being unique; unique nature or character.
| 1859 Todd's Cycl. Anat. V. 106/1 Bernard then goes on to prove, by the method of elimination, the unicity and propriety of this property of the pancreatic secretion. 1887 Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. 91 Which..gives The Faerie Queene its unique unicity, if such a conceit may be pardoned. |