Forms: 6 levitye, 7 -tie, 7– levity. [ad. OF. levité = It. levità, ad. L. levitātem, levitās, f. levis light: see -ITY.]
1. As a physical quality: The quality or fact of having comparatively little weight; lightness. Also † specific levity: cf. specific gravity (GRAVITY 4 c).
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 40/2. Consideringe theire ponderousnes or levitye.
1645. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 221. He abounded in things petrified,… a morsel of cork yet retaining its levity, sponges, [etc.].
1684. Boyle, Porousn. Anim. & Solid Bod., iii. 85. Marble itself abounds with internal Pores … as may be rationally conjectured from the Specifick Levity of it, in comparison of Gold and Lead.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 26. Rain-water … comes nearest to dew in levity, subtility and purity.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 82. When they [vapours] ascend into that region of the atmosphere of the same specifick levity, there they float.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xii. (1824), 482/1. A covering which shall unite the qualities of warmth, levity, and least resistance to the air.
1818. Faraday, Exp. Res., xxx. (1825), 166. The re-absorption … being … retarded in consequence of the superior levity of the fluid.
1869. Mrs. Somerville, Molec. Sci., I. i. 12. Hydrogen … rises in the air on account of its levity.
b. In pre-scientific physics, regarded as a positive property inherent in bodies in different degrees, or varying proportions, in virtue of which they tend to rise, as bodies possessing gravity tend to sink. Cf. GRAVITY 4 a. Obs. exc. Hist. or allusively.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 406. That leuitie whereof they spake, can hardly and vnneath bee found and knowne by any other means than [etc.].
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. (1634), 10. Hee … gave to every nature his proper forme; the forme of levitie to that which ascended.
1644. Digby, Nat. Bodies, x. (1658), 100. There is no such thing among bodies, as positive gravity or levity.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), 334. What alterations are made in the gravity or levity of the air from hour to hour.
1775. Priestley, Exper. Air, I. 267. That phlogiston should communicate absolute levity to the bodies with which it is combined, is a supposition that I am not willing to have recourse to.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxxiv. 381. As paradoxical as the weighing of levity.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 142. We know of no natural body in which the opposite of gravity, or positive levity, subsists.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 249. I had not levity enough in my framework to float across the lever.
c. fig. applied to immaterial things.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, Introd. Little starued conceits are gently wafted up by their extreme leuity to the middle region.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Prior, Wks. 1787, III. 147. The burlesque of Boileau’s Ode on Namur has, in some parts, such airiness and levity as will [etc.].
† 2. Lightness in movement; agility. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 257. The natural constitution of a Horse is hot … because of his Levity, and Velocity.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 122. The Levitie of men made shift to enter thorow places scant passable.
3. As a moral or mental quality, in various senses.
a. Want of serious thought or reflexion; frivolity. Also (now chiefly), ‘Trifling gaiety’ (J.); unbecoming or unseasonable jocularity. (The prevalent sense.)
1564. Brief Exam., A iij. As though they were ledde with a certayne irreligious leuitie, to ouerthrowe and abolyshe all thynges vsed before in religion.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. vii. 128. Our grauer businesse Frownes at this leuitie.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 4. The levity of one, and the morosity of another.
1671. Milton, Samson, 880. I … unbosom’d all my secrets to thee, Not out of levity, but overpowr’d By thy request.
a. 1686. B. Calamy, Serm. (1687), 6. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation; but onely as the necessities and wants of Men required it.
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 108. The subject has been treated with indecent and disgusting levity.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. vi. 116. It is mortifying to disclose the levity of feeling of men of genius.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Politics, Wks. (Bohn), I. 237. But politics rest on necessary foundations, and cannot be treated with levity.
1882. Jean Watson, Life A. Thomson, iii. 44. He could be gay without levity.
b. Incapacity for lasting affection, resolution or conviction; heedlessness in making and breaking promises; instability, fickleness, inconstancy.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Leuitie, lightnesse, inconstancie.
1633. P. Fletcher, Poet. Misc., 76. The Cause that with my verse she was offended, For womens levitie I discommended.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Acts xiv. 19. This is the levity of the vulgar, that one day will sacrifice as to Gods, to those, whom after they would kill as malefactors.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xvii. II. 94. The Sarmatians soon forgot, with the levity of Barbarians, the services which they had so lately received.
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., xiv. 296. Maximilian forgot, with extreme levity, his promises and alliances.
1834. Macaulay, Ess., Pitt (1851), 303. Sick of the perfidy and levity of the First Lord of the Treasury.
c. ‘Light’ or undignified behavior; unbecoming freedom of conduct (said esp. of women); an instance of this.
1601. Marston, Pasquil & Kath., II. 11. I know that women of leuitie and lightnesse are soone downe.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., xx. (1700), 195. Vain Pomp and indecent Levity ought to be guarded against.
1702. Penn, in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 171. Give him the true state of things, and weigh down his levities.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 70, ¶ 6. An unbecoming Levity in their Behaviour out of the Pulpit.
1727. Swift, What passed in Lond., Wks. 1755, III. I. 184. Those innocent freedoms and little levities so commonly incident to young ladies of their profession.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767), II. xiii. 239. Their natural graces … are lost in levity.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, viii. Distinguishing between a levity of this kind and a more serious address.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxiii. So many charges of impropriety and levity.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 256. Her elder sister … had been distinguished by beauty and levity.
† d. nonce-use. Lightness (of spirit), freedom from care. Obs.
1630. Donne, Serm., xxvi. (1640), 264. To what a blessed levity (if without levity we may so speake) to what a cheerefull lightnesse of spirit is he come, that comes newly from confession.
