familiarity
English
Etymology
From Middle French familiarité, from Latin familiāritātem. Displaced native Old English hīwcūþnes.
Morphologically familiar + -ity
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /fəmɪliˈæɹɪti/
- (colloquial) IPA(key): /fəmɪˈljæɹɪti/
- Rhymes: -æɹɪti
Noun
familiarity (countable and uncountable, plural familiarities)
- The state of being extremely friendly; intimacy.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- It is also folly and injustice to deprive children […] of their fathers familiaritie, and ever to shew them a surly, austere, grim, and disdainefull countenance, hoping thereby to keepe them in awfull feare and duteous obedience.
- 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 2,
- Do not keep familiarity with any but those, with whom you may improve your time.
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- Undue intimacy; inappropriate informality, impertinence.
- 1927, G K Chesterton, The Return of Don Quixote, page 5:
- Murrel did not in the least object to being called a monkey, yet he always felt a slight distaste when Julian Archer called him one. […] It had to do with a fine shade between familiarity and intimacy which men like Murrel are never ready to disregard, however ready they may be to black their faces.
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- An instance of familiar behaviour.
- Close or habitual acquaintance with someone or something; understanding or recognition acquired from experience.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 269:
- The objects around have been seen so often, that they have at last become, as it were, unseen; their familiarity does not carry us out of ourselves, for all their associations are our own.
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Derived terms
- familiarity breeds contempt
Translations
the state of being extremely friendly; intimacy
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undue intimacy; impertinence
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an instance of familiar behaviour
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close or habitual acquaintance with someone; recognizability
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Translations to be checked
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