precarity

English

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin precārietās. By surface analysis, precarious +‎ -ity, leading to the syncopation.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkɛɹɪti/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkɛəɹɪti/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəɹɪti
• Hyphenation: pre‧ca‧ri‧ty

Noun

precarity (countable and uncountable, plural precarities)

1. Synonym of precariousness
2. (sociology) A condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare.

   Synonym: insecurity

   • 2014, Roland Paulsen, Empty Labor: Idleness and Workplace Resistance, →ISBN, page 82:

     A phenomenon that catches a general tendency towards obscurity is what Standing calls "uptitling" - to give a job a high-sounding epithet to conceal its precarity and, I would say, its substance.

   • 2021, Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land, page 622:

     Does the boy sense, already, the precarity of all this?

Related terms

• see: precarious

Translations

condition of existence

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: （生存狀態的）不穩定性／（生存状态的）不稳定性 ((shēngcúnzhuàngtàide)bùwěndìngxìng)

• French: précarité (fr) f
• German: Prekarisierung f
• Greek: επισφάλεια (el) f (episfáleia)
• Spanish: precaridad
• Swedish: prekarisering c