Now rare. [ad. L. longinquitās, f. longinquus (see prec.).]
1. Long distance; remoteness.
1549. Compl. Scot., Ded. Ep. 4. The longinquite of his martial voyaige.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. xii. 411. There may shine a Tartarian sunne in Cathay, when as a darke night in this longinquitie of distance hideth him from our eyes.
1665. Manley, Grotius’s Low C. Warres, 343. Many famous Miracles have been done by them, as is believed with great facility from confident Asseverations; for that the Longinquity of places excludes further Tryals.
1831. T. L. Peacock, Crotchet Castle, ii. 34. I think the proximity of wine a matter of much more importance than the longinquity of water.
2. Remoteness, long continuance (of time). Also, (? erron.) prolixity (of discourse).
1623. Cockeram, Longinquitie, distance of time.
1658. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 556. The bones of the head—some of which are so affected by longinquity [ed. 1607 longanimity] of time that [etc.].
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. III. ii. 30. Thucydides … could know nothing … of things before the Peloponnesian war, by reason of the Longinquitie of Time.
1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, Prel. Inordinate unvaried length, sheer longinquity.
