Now rare. [ad. mod.L. verticitās, f. L. vertic-, stem of vertex VERTEX. So F. verticité, Sp. verticidad, Pg. verticidade.]
I. 1. The faculty of turning, or tendency to turn, towards a vertex or pole, esp. as exhibited in the loadstone or magnetic needle.
Very common in the 17th c.; now rare or Obs.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. iv. (1635), 72. The Verticity is that whereby the Poles of the Earthly Spheare, conforme and settle themselues vnto the Poles of the Heauen.
1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 140. We believe the verticity of the Needle, without a Certificate from the dayes of old.
1705. Derham, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 2136. And having again straitened it, I was surprized to find it had quite lost its Verticity.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos. (1806), IV. l. 393. His poker and tongs were natural magnets, and had their verticity fixed by being heated and cooled in a vertical position.
1837. Brewster, Magnet., 169. The little magnet or needle turned itself briskly,… shewing great verticity.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 712.
fig. 1687. Norris, Coll. Misc., 184. The Soul will then point to the center of Happiness with her full bent and verticity. Ibid. (1691), Pract. Disc., 170. His Will has lost much of its Verticity or Magnetick Inclination towards the chief Good.
b. With a and pl.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 68. A Loadstone fired … according to the position in cooling contracts a new verticity. Ibid. (1658), Gard. Cyrus, v. 72. If any shall further quæry why magneticall Philosophy excludeth decussations, and needles transversly placed do naturally distract their verticities.
1705. C. Purshall, Mech. Macrocosm, 265. If you heat an Iron Red, and let it cool perpendicular to the Earth,… its lowest end will gain a Verticity towards the North Pole.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Magnet, A Bar of Iron that has gain’d a Verticity by being heated red-hot and cool’d again.
fig. 1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 244. Though the body by a kind of Magnetism be drawn down…; yet the thus impregnate spirit contracts a Verticity to objects above the Pole.
2. The power of turning or revolving; rotation, revolution. ? Obs.
1672. Hooker, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), I. 181. The verticity of Jupiter and Mars on their axes.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. ii. § 11 (1695), 307. A certain number of Globules,… having a verticity about their own Centres.
1819. H. Busk, Banquet, III. 241. Hence on all subjects sparks of light you throw…: Blaze with the comet in his swift verticity, Or rouse us with a flash of electricity.
II. † 3. The vertex or top of something. Obs.–0
1656. Blount, Glossogr.
† 4. Vertical position in the heavens. Obs. rare.
1646. J. Gregory, Notes & Observ. (1650), 151. The verticity of any of those [stars] could not haue come and ‘stood over the place where the young child was.’
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, II. xiii. 333. The Æstival Part of Heaven does more invigorate those Planets which attend the ☉, not only by their higher Exaltation or Approches to Verticity, but [etc.].
5. Pole of verticity (see quot.).
1886. Cumming, Electricity, 54. There are two points, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern, at which the dip is 90°, or the magnetic force is vertical. These points are called the Magnetic Poles of the earth…. The term Pole of Verticity is sometimes applied to them.
