laicity

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French laïcité. By surface analysis, laic +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /leɪˈɪsɪti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /leɪˈɪsɪɾi/
• Rhymes: -ɪsɪti

Noun

laicity (countable and uncountable, plural laicities)

1. The control or influence of the laity or the fact of being lay.
2. Alternative form of laïcité.
3. Synonym of secularism.
   • 1949, The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science‎^[1], page 73:

     A correlation may be observed between the subjects studied in the masonic assemblies and those discussed in the Radical and Radical-Socialist party congresses: between 1901 and 1910 these subjects included state laicity, [...]

   • 2007, The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Religion‎^[2], page 724:

     This shows that there can be laicity even where there is no formal separation [of Church and State].

   • 2017, Second International Handbook of Urban Education‎^[3], page 596:

     In this sense, there is no doubt that the concept of laicity has been tremendously useful.

Further reading

• “laicity, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.