privity
English
editEtymology
editFrom Anglo-Norman priveté, privitee et al., Old French priveté, from privé + -té.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editprivity (countable and uncountable, plural privities)
- (obsolete) A divine mystery; something known only to God, or revealed only in holy scriptures. [12th–16th c.]
- 1357, John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville[1]:
- But yet there is a place that men clepe the school of God, where he was wont to teach his disciples, and told them the privities of heaven.
- (now rare, archaic) Privacy, secrecy. [from 13th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Him oft and oft I askt in priuitie, / Of what loines and what lignage I did spring […].
- (obsolete) A private matter, a secret. [14th–17th c.]
- (archaic, in the plural) The genitals. [from 14th c.]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 49, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- Having ended the delights of nature, they were wont to wipe their privities [translating catze] with perfumed wooll.
- (law) A relationship between parties seen as being a result of their mutual interest or participation in a given transaction, e.g. contract, estate, etc. [from 16th c.]
- 1870, Lysander Spooner, No Treason, Number 6, page 32:
- There is no privity, (as the lawyers say),—that is, no mutual recognition, consent and agreement—between those who take these oaths, and any other persons.
- The fact of being privy to something; knowledge, compliance. [from 16th c.]
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 14, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
- But this acknowledgement was made without the privity of his wife, whose vicious aversion he was obliged, in appearance, to adopt.
Derived terms
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- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English 3-syllable words
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- en:Law