[ad. L. æquivalentia: see EQUIVALENCE sb. and -ENCY.]
1. = EQUIVALENCE 1.
1535. Bp. Salisbury, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. lxi. 150. Had not I been worthy Correction, if I had contemptuously disobeyed your Letter lately addressed unto me, having the Equivalency of a Inhibition?
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 199. Dux and Comes Britanniæ, of whose equiualencie in ancient time, alreadie.
1674. Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, 38. The one to measure the velocity of the Wind, and the other its Power or Equivalency to Weight.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. (1810), I. 159. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of Sins; which argueth the equivalency of these terms.
1737. L. Clarke, Hist. Bible (1740), II. v. 126. He promises them the reward of an hundredfold by way of comfort and equivalency.
1803. Edin. Rev., III. 237. Money only serves as a measure of equivalency, not as a medium of exchange. Ibid. (1821), XXXV. 432. By means of which alone the equivalency of dactyls and spondees could ever be established.
1864. Huxley, Elem. Compar. Anat., v. 85. I leave aside altogether the question of the equivalency of these groups.
b. Physics. = EQUIVALENCE 1 b.
1866. Intell. Observ., No. 54. 454. This equivalency of heat and mechanical force.
2. Chem. = EQUIVALENCE 2.
1869. Mrs. Somerville, Molec. Sc., I. iii. 106. And thus chemical equivalency extends to them.
3. Geol. Of strata: Correspondence in serial order and characteristics.
1853. G. Tate, Addr. Berwick. Naturalists’ Club (1857), 134. Fossiliferous beds … furnish interesting evidence as to age and equivalency.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 203. (title) Reality of the Primordial or Potsdam period in America, and its equivalency with the European.
† 4. An equivalent, a substitute. Obs.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1707), IV. 84. A Vicarious Punishment, not a rigid Satisfaction, but an Equivalency.
1705. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., II. 195. Will prove a sufficient Equivalency.
