arch. or Obs. Also 5 apparancie, 6–7 -cy. [ad. L. appārēntia, abst. n. f. appārēnt-em: see APPARENT and -ANCY, -ENCY. Cf. transparency. Strictly, it seems to have been at first formed on ME. apparance, -aunt (see prec. and next) with the -ie, -y repr. L. -ia.]
† 1. The quality, state or fact of appearing or seeming; seemingness, semblance, appearance. Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 63. This double ypocrisie With his devoute apparancie A viser set upon his face.
1597. Daniel, Civ. Wars, VII. lxi. Both sides did labour … to crown Their cause with the apparency of might.
1657. G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind., 8. Who not comparable to him in reality, would yet seem to excell him in apparency.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XVIII. 644. Apparencies, which have informed me when the patient has been any way irregular.
2. The quality of being apparent to the senses; visibility, apparentness. rare.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. ix. 315. Saphœda (so cal’d because of its apparency more than other foot-Veins).
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1818), III. 90. The non-apparency of either … being accounted for by the disproportion of our senses.
3. The quality of being apparent or evident to the mind; show of reason; apparentness.
1604. E. G., D’Acosta’s Hist. Ind., I. xi. 36. Some … strive to proove, that the new-found world was knowne to the Ancients. And … wee cannot deny, but that there was some apparency.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 123. Yet would you, that God should fauour your infidelity by extraordinary wayes. What apparancy is there for this?
4. The position of being heir apparent.
1741. T. Robinson, Gavelkind, II. ii. 183. Tho’ he is Heir apparent at that Time, yet there is not that constant and perpetual Apparency.
1815. Encycl. Brit., XI. 655/2. The bare right of apparency founds the action against the life-renter.
