Constancy

[ad. L. constāntia: see prec. and -ANCY.] The quality of being constant.

  1.  The state or quality of being unmoved in mind; steadfastness, firmness, endurance, fortitude.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 136. Constancy is y^e vertue wherby man or woman holdeth hole, and is not broken by impacyency.

1553.  Eden, Treat. Newe Ind., Ep. to Rdr. (Arb.), 9. I woulde wishe all men to be of such corage and constancie in these affayres.

1623.  Mede, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 291. III. 153. Thank God for the Princes constancie in Religion.

1709.  Pope, Lett., 17 July. I stood resign’d with a stoical constancy to endure the worst of evils.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Race, Wks. II. 20. They have maintained constancy and self-equality for many ages.

  † b.  Determination, resolution (to do a thing).

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 986. Encreased his constancie to avoid a most certaine death.

1643.  R. Baillie, Lett. & Jrnls. (1841), II. 80. The constancie of most of them to doe the Queen better service at London.

  2.  Steadfastness of attachment to a person or cause; faithfulness, fidelity.

1548.  Hall, Chron., 193 b. What for the confidence that he had in her perfyte constancy … he determined … to marye with her.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., V. ii. 161. While thou liu’st, deare Kate, take a fellow of plaine and vncoyned Constancie.

1754.  Sherlock, Disc. (1759), I. i. 2. The Ground of their Constancy and Adherence to Christ.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 438. And talks right well of constancy and truth.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vi. § 6. 335. A constancy of friendship which won him a host of devoted adherents.

  3.  The quality of being invariable (see CONSTANT a. 4–6); uniformity, unchangingness, regularity.

1604.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. 88. The lawes of God himselfe which are of this nature, no man indued with common sense will euer denie to bee of a different constitution from the former, in respect of the ones constancie, and the mutabilitie of the other.

a. 1619.  Fotherby, Atheom., II. xi. § 2 (1622), 313. The admirable order and incredible constancie of the Heauens.

1794.  Sullivan, View Nat., I. 206. The polar wind blows with equal constancy in both the frigid zones.

1830.  Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 239. The important fact of the constancy of the angles at which their faces meet.

1855.  Brewster, Newton, II. xxv. 365. The constancy of temperature in the phenomena of fusion and ebullition.

  † b.  Persistence, perseverance. Obs.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 2. If you will now vnite in your Complaints, And force them with a Constancy.

  4.  (with a) Something permanent, a permanency. For a constancy: as a permanent arrangement.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 208, ¶ 2. The Person most agreeable to a Man for a Constancy.

1749.  Chesterf., Lett., 26 Dec. Six, or at most seven hours sleep is, for a constancy, as much as you or anybody can want.

c. 1750.  W. Stroud, Mem., 52. A Chariot, which I hired for a Constancy, or at least for the chiefest Part of … seven weeks.

1888.  Scotsman, 8 Feb., 10/6, Advt. A constancy and liberal wages for a good work man.

  † 5.  Certainty. Obs.

1563.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 213. I … knowing the constantie of Death and y^e vnconstantie of the houre and time.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 26. More witnesseth than fancies images, And growes to something of great constancie [But Schmidt understands it as = ‘consistency’: see next].

  † 6.  Physical firmness, solidity; = CONSISTENCE.

1794.  Sullivan, View Nat., II. 212. In passing from its liquid state to its concretion, to its constancy and firmness.