Obs. [ME. egalite, a. F. égalité: see EGALL a. and -ITY.] = EQUALITY (in 14th c. with sense ‘equanimity’).
(Re-formed as a nonce-wd. by Tennyson, to convey the modern associations connected with the Fr. word.)
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. iv. 42. Al fortune is blisful to a man by þe agreablete or by þe egalite of hym þat suffreþ it. Ibid. (c. 1386), Pers. T., ¶ 875. She is as thise martirs in egalitee.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 170 a. A Rent for egaltye of partition may be granted.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 265. That cursed France with her egalities!
So Egalitarian a. nonce-wd. [after F. égalitaire: see -ARY and -AN.], that asserts the equality of mankind.
1885. E. C. G. Murray, Under Lens (ed. 2), II. 102–3. Will not hear of the egalitarian doctrine that princes are of no more account than other men.
