Obs. Also 5–6 fermete, -itie, 6–7 firmitie, -yte. [a. OF. fermeté, f. ferme FIRM a.; refashioned after FIRM and -ITY.]
1. Firmness, solidity, stability. Also, moral firmness, firm allegiance, constancy.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 83. [It] were to long to compte the tenthe party of her fermete, for they ouercome the deuelle and hys temptaciones.
1480. Bury Wills (1850), 59. For the more fermete and stedfastenes therof, and that yt perpetually shulde indure.
1563. W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 25 b. There was no firmity or strength in it [the ayre] to beare them [birds] up.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. (Arb.), 113. The square is of all other accompted the figure of most solliditie and stedfastnesse, for his owne stay and firmitie requireth none other base then himselfe.
1638. Chillingworth, Rel. Prot., I. vi. § 7. 329. The strength and firmity of my assent must rise and fall, together with the apparent credibility of the object.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann. VI. (1658), 337. Pyrrhus, doubting the firmity of the Macedons unto him, yielded thereto, and so came to a division of the kingdom of Macedon with him by Cities and Regions.
c. 1739. Earl of Ailesbury, Mem. (1890), 51. What was so little expected as to his firmity and presence of mind.
2. A means of strengthening; an assurance.
1523. St. Papers Hen. VIII., IV. 94. If mariage myght be goten on this side and that side, it woll be … good for bothe the realmes, and a firmyte of kindnes.
