[a. Fr. absurdité, f. L. absurditāt-em, n. of state f. absurd-us: see ABSURD and -ITY.]
† 1. Mus. Lack of harmony, untunefulness.
1674. Playford, Musick, III. 37. In the last disallowance, which is when the upper part stands, and the lower part falls from a lesser third to a fifth, many have been deceived, their ears not finding the absurdity of it.
2. The state or quality of being absurd; opposition to obvious reason or truth; folly.
1528. More, Heresyes, II. Wks. 1557, 184/2. Which argument hath … much inconuenience and absurdite folowyng therupon.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 507. In that he [Aristotle] hath written concerning the vse of the brain … he cannot be redeemed from palpable absurdity.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 71, ¶ 13. Divines have shewn the absurdity of delaying reformation.
1798. Ferriar, Eng. Histor., 248. Caprice … prefers absurdity of invention to correct imitation.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 269. His Koran has become a stupid piece of prolix absurdity.
3. Anything absurd; a statement, action, or custom opposed to obvious truth or sound reason; a logical contradiction; a foolish error.
1528. More, Heresyes, I. Wks. 1557, 138/2. All whiche absurdities & vnreasonable folyes appeareth as well in the worshippe of our ymages, as in the Painims ydolles.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, I. i. 10. Of a demonstration leading to an … absurditie, you may haue an example in the fourth proposition.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. (1656), I. § 49. Moses … committed a grosse absurdity in Philosophy, when with these eyes of flesh he desired to see God.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, II. viii. 168. The captain hearing me utter these absurdities concluded I was raving.
1846. Mill, Logic (1868), I. iv. § 3. 89. At first sight this division has the air of an absurdity.
1879. McCarthy, Hist. own Times, I. ii. 10. It is not that the demands of the Chartists were anachronisms or absurdities.
