equality
(ɪˈkwɒlɪtɪ)
Forms: 4–6 equalite, (5 equalyte, eqwalyte), 6 equaltie, equalitie, -llitie, (6 æqualitie, 7 -ty,) 6– equality. See also egality.
[a. OF. équalité (mod.Fr. égalité), ad. L. æquālitāt-em, f. æquālis equal.]
The quality or condition of being equal.
1. a. The condition of being equal in quantity, amount, value, intensity, etc.
| c 1400 Beryn 2734 Of hete & eke of coldnes of oon equalite. 1530 Palsgr. 217/1 Equalite, egallité, evynnesse. 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. iii. iii. (Arb.) 147 The equalitie of the daye and nyght. 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. xiv. 221 Reduce to any shadow of æquality. 1657 Earl of Monmouth tr. Paruta's Pol. Disc. 200 God, by whom..the earth it self is sustained and held up with a miraculous equality of weight. 1791 Cowper Iliad xx. 572 Pleading equality of years. 1831 Brewster Optics ii. 19 In approaching the mirror, the image and object approach to equality. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. iii. 245 Will the exhausting of the tube disturb the equality? 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 122 The ganglia do not maintain the same numerical equality. |
b. esp. in Math. The exact correspondence between magnitudes and numbers in respect of quantity, the existence of which is sometimes expressed by the sign = .
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. def. 32. 5 This figure [rhombus] agreeth with a square, as touching the equallitie of lines. 1772 J. H. Moore Pract. Navig. (1828) 4 = The Sign of Equality; it shews that the numbers or quantities placed before it are equal to those following it. 1846 Mill Logic i. iii. §11 Equality; which is but another word for the exact resemblance commonly called identity, considered as subsisting between things in respect of their quantity. |
2. a. The condition of having equal dignity, rank, or privileges with others; the fact of being on an equal footing.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. 1. Prob. 60 Suppos hys Lordschype lyk noucht be Tyl gret statys in eqwalytè. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 199 But all iii persones one god, of one substaunce, & of inseperable equalite. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. iii. 47 Equality of two Domesticke powers, Breed scrupulous faction. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 26 Not content With faire equalitie, fraternal state. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 225 ¶3 Equality is the Life of Conversation. 1794 Southey Wat Tyler, Ye are all equal; nature made you so. Equality is your birth-right. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Ch. 30 The feeling of perfect equality inside the church. |
b. The condition of being equal in power, ability, achievement, or excellence. Also (rarely), the condition of being ‘equal to an emergency’.
| 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 327 The on-set and retyre Of both your Armies, whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censured. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. (1882) 16 The confidence of his own equality with those whom he deemed most worthy of his praise. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxxiv, They fought with an equality. 1879 G. W. Curtis Sp. New Eng. Soc. Dinner, With their equality to the emergency the Pilgrim Fathers would have lived in the best houses. |
† 3. a. In persons: Fairness, impartiality, equity. b. In things: Due proportion, proportionateness.
| 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (1835) 12 Shap and colour and eche feture Were comproporcyond in swych equalyte. 1552 Huloet s.v., Equalitie of lawes, wher thei be to al degrees indifferente. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. lvi. 44 In hering of him what equaltie ye show. 1692 Ray Dissol. World 232 The breaking of order and equality in the world. 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation (1852) Introd. 18 Equality is of the essence of such taxes. |
4. Evenness of surface; uniformity of size or shape; level position. Also of movements or processes: Evenness, regularity, uniformity in rate or degree. Now somewhat rare.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. xxiii. (Tollem. MS.), The see is calde ‘equor’, and haþ þat name of equalite, evennesse. 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 4 b, All the points of the Piques of everie rancke carrying one equalitie. 1656 Ridgley Pract. Physick 172 Sometimes a Bone, so pressed down, settles to his natural equality. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 25 The equality of its Motion..without any fits or starts. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 95 The Plumber's vain pretence to near Equality, and endeavour to cast as equal as he can. 1834 H. Martineau Farrers iv. 73 The equality of wear of a piece of gingham or calico. |
† 5. fig. Of the body: An even condition or temper. Of the mind: Evenness, equability. Obs.
| 1460–70 Bk. Quintessence ii. 20 It consumeth the corrupt superflue humouris, and reducit nature to equalite. 1647 Charles I. Decl. Jan. 18 Wks. (1662) 281 Patience and a great Equality of Mind. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 143 ¶4 To enjoy Life and Health as a constant Feast, we should..arrive at an Equality of Mind. a 1762 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. lxxiv. 121 You would find an easy equality of temper you do not expect. |
6. Equality State, popular name in the U.S. for Wyoming, the first state to introduce women's suffrage.
| 1891 M. F. Sweetser King's Handbk. U.S. 904 The Commonwealth [sc. Wyoming] has been called the equality state, because ever since its organization men and women have been accorded equal rights to vote. 1963 R. I. McDavid Jr. Mencken's Amer. Lang. x. 700 Wyoming is the Equality or Suffrage State, so called because its Territorial Legislature made the first grant of the suffrage to women voters in 1869. |
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Add: [1.] [b.] (Later examples.) Also (occas.), an instance of this; an equation.
| 1882 [see superposition n. 2 a]. 1938 Forum Feb. 95/2 From the Lorentz transformation..the equality of mass and rest-energy is derived. 1957 Fundamenta Mathematica XLIV. 300 (heading) On the extension of equalities in connected topological groups. |