luxuriancy
English edit
Etymology edit
From luxuri(ant) + -ancy.[1]
Noun edit
luxuriancy (countable and uncountable, plural luxuriancies)
- Obsolete form of luxuriance.
- 1688, Tobias Smollett, The History of England in Three Volumes, volume 2[1]:
- The province abounds with vast forests of timber; the plains are covered with a surprising luxuriancy of vegetables, flowers, and flowering shrubs, diffusing the most delicious fragrance.
- 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 1, in The Vicar of Wakefield:
- Olivia, now about eighteen, had that luxuriancy of beauty with which painters generally draw Hebe; open, sprightly, and commanding.
- 1769, Frances Brooke, The History of Emily Montague[2]:
- In short, we should have been continually endeavoring, following the luxuriancy of female imagination, to render more charming the sweet abodes of love and friendship; whilst our heroes, changing their swords into plough-shares, and engaged in more substantial, more profitable labors, were clearing land, raising cattle and corn, and doing every thing becoming good farmers; or, to express it more poetically, "Taming the genius of the stubborn plain, Almost as quickly as they conquer'd Spain:" By which I would be understood to mean the Havannah, where, vanity apart, I am told both of them did their duty, and a little more, if a man can in such a case be said to do more.
- 1824, Robert Kerr, A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, volume 2[3]:
- A great luxuriancy of trees of unknown species, was soon observed to overspread the land, whence unknown birds of beautiful plumage came off in flocks to the vessel, and gave the appearance of a pleasing dream to their unexpected deliverance.
References edit
- ^ James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Luxuriancy”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VI, Part 1 (L), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 519, column 2: “f. as prec. [Luxuriance: “f. Luxuriant: see -ance”] : see -ancy.”