ventosity

English

Etymology

ventose +‎ -ity, from Latin ventositas.

Noun

ventosity (usually uncountable, plural ventosities)

1. The quality or state of being ventose; windiness.
   • 1888, John Ruskin, Proserpina, Volume 1‎^[1]:

     On the one hand, a sternness and a coarseness of structure which changes its stem into a stake, and its leaf into a spine; on the other, an utter flaccidity and ventosity of structure, which changes its stem into a riband, and its leaf into a bubble.

2. (by extension) vainglory; pride.
   • 1891, Various, Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, November 7, 1891‎^[2]:

     Both of them were youths of a Sprightly Genius, and of an Alert Apprehension, attended, in the case of GRANDOLPH, with a mighty heat and ebullition of Fancy, which led early to a certain frothiness or ventosity in speech.

   • 1907, John Morley, Studies in Literature‎^[3]:

     And surely no small number of those who are of a solid nature, and who, from the want of this ventosity, cannot spread all sail in pursuit of their own honour, suffer some prejudice and lose dignity by their moderation."

   • 1925, Honore de Balzac, Droll Stories, Volume 1‎^[4]:

     Seek something better than ventosity beneath the sky.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “ventosity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)