immunity
(ɪˈmjuːnɪtɪ)
Also 4 ynmunite, (6 emenyte, 7 emunity), imunity.
[ad. L. immūnitās freedom from public services or charges, in med.L. privileged place, sanctuary, f. immūnis immune: see -ity, and cf. F. immunité (1341 in Godef. Compl.).]
1. Law. Exemption from a service, obligation, or duty; freedom from liability to taxation, jurisdiction, etc.; privilege granted to an individual or a corporation conferring exemption from certain taxes, burdens, or duties. Also less strictly or in non-technical use: Non-liability, privilege. (Cf. franchise.)
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Macc. x. 34 Dais of ynmunite [Gloss or fraunchise], and of remissioun, to alle Jewis that ben in my rewme. 1549 Latimer 6th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 161 There is sum place in London, as they saye, immunitie, impunitie. What should I call it? a preueledged place for whoredome. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 970 The Senate..in favour of his Profession, gave immunity to all others that from that time forth did practise Physick. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 327 Enriching..the place with name of a Citie, with building and immunitie. 1623 Conway in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 155 His Majesty fore⁓sawe an infinite liberty, a perpetuall emunity graunted to the Roman Catholiques. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. i. iii, A foul injury and derogation..of that birth-right and immunity which Christ hath purchas'd for us with his blood. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. v. 243 The English subject continued to pride himself in his immunity from taxation without consent of parliament. 1897 Maitland Domesday & Beyond ii. 270 In an ordinary case the clause of immunity will first contain some general words declaring the land to be free of burdens in general, and then some exceptive words declaring that it is not to be free from certain specified burdens. |
b. with pl.: A particular exemption or privilege.
| 1538 Starkey England ii. i. 151 Certayn pryuylegys and prerogatyf..as..he schold not be constraynyd to go forth to warre..wyth such other lyke immunytes and pryuylegys. 1571 Act 13 Eliz. c. 29 §5 All manner of Liberties Fraunchises Immunyties..geven or graunted to the said Chauncellor Maisters and Schollers of either of the said Universities. 1690 Child Disc. Trade (1694) 117 Merchandizing..the purchasing of an Immunity or Monopoly to the prejudice of our country. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scot. (1813) I. i. 15 Civil privileges and immunities were the consequence of their victories. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth vii, He is the Provost of Perth, and..must see the freedoms and immunities of the burgh preserved. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 128. |
2. spec. (Eccl.) Exemption of ecclesiastical persons and things from secular or civil liabilities, burdens, or duties; as the exemption of the clergy from lay jurisdiction, or of church property from secular taxation, and the freedom of sanctuary from invasion. Chiefly with an and pl.
| 1513 More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 768 God forbid that any man should..breake the immunite and libertie of that sacred Sanctuarie. 1524 Sc. Acts Jas. V (1814) 286 That the fredomez and liberteis of halikirk, with all priuelegis & emenyteis thairof..be obseruit. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 93/2 Men of the clergie..he indued with speciall privileges and immunities. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj., Stat. Robt. II, 49 How oft ane manslayer takes him self to the immunitie of the kirk. 1610 Bp. Carleton Jurisd. 161 These immunities which Emperours and Princes haue giuen to the Church, the Church ought to inioy without disturbance, and to withdraw such immunities, were high sacriledge and impiety. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4831/2 The Congregation of Immunities have..had under their Consideration the Affairs of Naples, where the Viceroy has caused several Criminals of State to be taken forcibly out of the Churches, whither they had fled for Sanctuary. 1883 Froude Short Stud. IV. i. iii. 34 The question of the immunities of the clergy had been publicly raised. |
† 3. Freedom from ordinary restraints; undue freedom, licence. Obs.
| [1549: see 1.] 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1877) 143 The arguments of tragedies is anger, wrath, immunitie, crueltie, iniurie, incest, murther. 1639 Massinger Unnat. Combat iv. ii, To pay your debts, and take your lechery..With all your other choice immunities. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 126 And he..Is sentenc'd and deliver'd up To Satan..For vent'ring wickedly to put a Stop To his Immunities and free Affairs. |
4. Freedom or exemption from any natural or usual liability, or from anything evil or injurious.
| 1592 tr. Junius on Rev. xxii. 1 Freedome and immunity from all evil. 1677 Hale Contempl. ii. 162, I have no cause to hope for an Immunity from Trouble, so long as I have no Immunity from Sin. 1683 Boyle in Phil. Trans. XVII. 634 Three thousand Grains of Water, (whose Immunity from common Salt we try'd apart). 1756 Burke Subl. & B. i. xv, Nor is it, either in real or fictitious distresses, our immunity from them which produces our delight. 1854 C. Brontë in Mrs. Gaskell Life 437 It is long since I have known such comparative immunity from headache. 1894 J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 32 Ireland has enjoyed an immunity from snakes. |
5. The condition of being immune from or insusceptible to poison, the contagion of a specific disease, or the like; immunization: see immune a. 2. [So mod.F. immunité (Littré).]
| 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 715 In one of the five instances..the apparent immunity must have lasted for at least two years, that being the interval between the two diphtheritic visitations. 1887 Oxf. Biol. Mem. tr. E. du Bois Reymond 408 The immunity of vipers from their own poison proved by Fontana. 1896 Allbutt Syst. Med. I. 564 The animal remains passive while the immunity-conferring substances are applied to its tissues. |
6. proposed use. (See quot.)
| 1879 W. E. Hearn Aryan Househ. x. 232 Outside this association there..was the Household, considered as a corporate body, without any relation to other Households... The independent position of the Household may be called Immunity, as opposed to Community. |