contrariety

contrariety

English

Alternative forms

• contrarietie (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French contrariété, from Late Latin contrarietas, from contrarius, from Latin contra (“against”). By surface analysis, contrary +‎ -ety.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɒntɹəˈɹʌɪəti/

Noun

contrariety (countable and uncountable, plural contrarieties)

1. Opposition or contrariness; cross-purposes, marked contrast.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     What differences of sense and reason, what contrarietie of imaginations doth the diversitie of our passions present unto us?

   • 1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin 2003, p.61:

     This contrariety of humours betwixt my father and my uncle, was the source of many a fraternal squabble.

   • 1800, James Sedgwick, Remarks, Critical and Miscellaneous, on the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone, page 171:

     The contrariety of views and designs, the concertative, dilatory conferences of a numerous assembly ( rent and divided as such assemblies are ever found to be ) , render it expedient that the prerogative of commencing war be confided to the advised discretion of the executory power.

   • 1838, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Duty and Inclination, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, page 192:

     Yet however within my reach, however tempting they may appear, when I think upon the contrarieties, the restraints, the uncertainties that in this sublunary temporary sojourn would interpose their bane, the scene appears joyless, and I fly, rejoicing fly, to rest my hopes, faith, confidence on that base which is immutable, never-changing, never-ending; in a word, I fly to repose myself on the bosom of my God.

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, OCLC 702939134:

     The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, there was no contrariety between that and the current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.

   • 1998, Walter E. Rex, Diderot's Counterpoints:

     This book puts forward a clearer understanding of Diderot's perplexities by taking into account the dynamics of his thought processes, especially the mode, peculiar to him, of thinking via contrarieties.

   • 2011, Tim Blanning, "The reinvention of the night", Times Literary Supplement, 21 Sep.:

     At the heart of his argument is the contrariety between day and night, light and dark.