Forms: α. 4 stabylte, stabulte, 4–5 stablete, 5 stabiltee. β. 5 stabilite, stabilitee, 5–6 stabylyte, 6–7 stabilitie (Dict. stabylitie), 7– stability. [ME. stablete, a. OF. (e)stableté, semi-popular ad. L. stabilitās, f. stabili-s STABLE a.: see -TY. the β forms (= F. stabilité, from 12th c.) are assimilated to the Latin form.] The quality or condition of being stable.
1. In physical senses. a. Power of remaining erect; freedom from liability to fall or be overthrown.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 23472. Thyng that is maad by rule and lyne, In it self hath more beaute tendure, and mor stabilite.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 119. The Roots [of a tree] for its stability and drawing Nourishment from the Earth.
1700. C. Nesse, Antid. Armin. (1827), 22. The temple stood firmly upon those two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, i. e. stability and strength.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, I. 24. These subterranean Walls dispos’d with Art, Such Strength, and such Stability impart, That Storms … and Earthquakes … Break not the Pillars.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1748), 331. The Strength of an Oak, or the Stability of a Pyramid.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent of Man, 414. The true function of the root is to give stability to the tree.
fig. 1585. C. Fetherstone, trans. Calvin on Acts xv. 36. 381. There ought nothing … to bee more firme, than the spirituall building of faith, whose stabilitie is grounded in the very heauen.
1910. J. W. Harper, Soc. Ideal, x. 117. Social jerry-building has no stability.
b. Fixity of position in space; freedom from liability to changes of place.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. v. (1635), 115. The stability is an affection of the earth whereby the Terrestriall Spheare is firmely settled in his proper place.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., III. 168. An Intrinsecal Tendency that it [the Magnet] has of its own, to bring all its parts to their right and determinate points, there to remain in a perfect Stability.
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peake, 45. He … began to try This, and that hanging stone’s stability, To prove their firmness.
1831. Brewster, Newton, x. 136, note. The doctrine of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun.
1853. Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges, 19. The gradual progress of rivers to their present state of comparative stability.
c. Ability to remain in the same relative place or position in spite of disturbing influences; capacity for resistance to displacement; the condition of being in stable equilibrium, tendency to recover the original position after displacement. Also, of a body in motion: Freedom from oscillation, steadiness.
a. 1542. Wyatt, Ps. xxxviii. 13. Such is thi hand on me, yt in my fleshe for terrour of thy yre Is not on poynt of ferme stabilite.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. ii. 57. Had they been acquainted with this principle, Anaxagoras, Socrates and Democritus had better made out the ground of this stability…. Now whether the earth stand still, or moveth circularly, we may concede this Magneticall stability.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxviii. 162. Our motions … serve … to preserve constant stability amidst a variety of causes which tend to destroy it.
1796. Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 52. When a solid body floats … and external force is applied to incline it from its position, the resistance opposed to this inclination is termed the stability of floating.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXX. 501. A method … for ascertaining the degree of stability or stiffness of a ship.
1855. D. K. Clark, Railway Mach., 165/2. By steadiness or stability is meant the property of moving along the rail without any inclination from the centre-line of progression.
1877. W. H. White, Man. Naval Archit., iii. 63. The statical stability of a ship may be defined as the effort which she makes when inclined by external forces acting horizontally, and held steadily at that inclination, to return towards her natural position of equilibrium. Ibid., iv. 131. On this assumption … dynamical stability may be defined as the ‘work’ done in heeling the ship from her upright position to any angle of inclination.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 86/2. The spinning motion [of a top] gives a stability to the axis of rotation.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XV. 751/1. (art. Mechanics) Safety against displacement by turning is called stability of position; safety against displacement by sliding, stability of friction.
† d. ‘Fixedness; not fluidity’ (J.). Obs. rare.
1661. Boyle, Physiol. Ess. (1669), 203. Since fluidness and stability being contrary qualities, are to be apprehended under contrary notions, we may conceive that the firmness or stability of a body consists principally in this, that the particles [etc.].
e. Of a system of bodies: Permanence of arrangement; power of resisting change of structure.
1855. Brewster, Newton, I. xiii. 358. This grand discovery … securing the stability of the system, is doubtless one of the noblest in physical astronomy.
1869. Huxley, in Scientific Opinion, April, 464/2. Whereby all perturbations eventually reduced themselves to oscillations on each side of a mean position, and the stability of the solar system was secured.
f. Of a chemical compound or combination: Capacity to resist decomposition or disruption.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (ed. 2), 41. Such combinations are usually of small stability and are decomposed as rapidly as they are formed.
1877. J. Clerk Maxwell, in Encycl. Brit., VI. 313. Now if such groups [of molecules] of greater stability are disseminated through the substance [etc.].
1878. W. H. Wardell, Explosives, ibid. VIII. 808/1. The fulminates are among the most violent of all explosive compounds, their chemical stability being very small.
g. Of a color: Permanence.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, I. I. I. iii. 45. The stability of colour consists in its power of resisting the action of acids, alkalis, &c.
2. Of an immaterial thing: Immunity from destruction or essential change; enduring quality.
a. of government, institutions, customs, etc.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XX. xviii. 829. I wote wel in me was not alle the stabylyte of this realme.
c. 1475. Henryson, Poems, III. 171/38. Now is stabilitee fundyn in na stage … Peas is away, all in perplexitee.
1584. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 699. The cuntrie being brocht to a greittar stabilitie.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, IV. 148. Where there was no honesty … in such a Countrey … there can bee no stabilitie.
1655. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 355. A progresse in the old way workes stability.
1767. A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. to People, 15. The difference in stability of a commerce founded on the necessities or superfluities of life.
1800. Marq. Wellesley, in Owen, Desp. (1877), 732. The stability of our Government will bear a due proportion to its wisdom, liberality, and justice.
1858. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Pers. Poetry, Wks. (Bohn), III. 237. Oriental life and society … stand in violent contrast with the … secular stability … of the western nations.
1859. F. W. Newman, Lett., 5 May, in Sieveking, Mem. (1909), 172. He [Louis Napoleon] covets stability and the glory of liberating Italy.
1867. Smiles, Huguenots Eng., xix. (1880), 354. That enterprising and industrious middle class which gives stability to every state.
1873. C. Robinson, N. S. Wales, 32. The stability and expansiveness of this industry is proved by its steady and uniformly progressive development.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 123. He [Plato] is deeply struck with the stability of Egyptian institutions.
1882. Freeman, Lect. to Amer. Audiences, II. v. 396. What I see in England, in America, in Switzerland, is stability, the power to make changes, when change is needed, without pulling the whole political fabric down on the heads of the reformers.
b. of the Divine nature or attributes. ? Obs.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. iii. § 4. The naturall generation and processe of all things receyueth order of proceeding from the setled stabilitie of diuine vnderstanding.
1707. Norris, Treat. Humility, iii. 84. When he compares himself with the central stability and immoveable subsistence of that great and glorious Being.
c. of worldly estate, financial affairs.
a. 1628. Preston, New Covt. (1629), 63. If you looke for stabilitie in your estate, and wonder why a change should come,… why didst thou expect stabilitie in that which is subject to vanitie?
1732. Belle Assemblée, II. 295. Those devoted to Ambition; who seem, methinks, in a continual Whirl, are never in a state of Stability, or perfect Ease.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., III. 386. [The hermit craving] a life of peace, Stability without regret or fear; That hath been, is, and shall be evermore!
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, v. 69. It is the resource on which the proprietor mainly relies for the stability of his fortune.
1865. Lever, Luttrell, xl. A great London banking firm was associated with the enterprise, which, of course, gave the air of stability to the operation.
1865. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, xv. [He] suspends payment upon the first failure that affects his stability.
d. of a science, theory, covenant, etc.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos., V. ii. (1687), 181/2. Science … hath certitude, and Stability as being conversant in things certain and stable.
a. 1687. H. More, Def. Cabbala, App. ii. (1713), 119. Which number [eight] being the first cube, is a fit hieroglyphick of the Stability of that Covenant made with the Jews in Circumcision.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 158, ¶ 1. Criticism … has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.
1751. Bp. Thomas, in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 306. The only Thing that could give Stability to their Proceedings.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 108. He will not admit that it shakes the stability of Mr. Knight’s theory in the slightest degree.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., iv. 107. The Gospel language throws doubt upon the final stability of much that passes current here with respect to character.
1883. Manch. Guard., 22 Oct., 5/4. Some of his verses are purely occasional and have no claim to stability.
e. of natural laws or sequences of natural phenomena.
1836. Emerson, Nature, Idealism, Wks. (Bohn), II. 160. The frivolous make themselves merry with the Ideal theory, as if it affected the stability of nature.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea (Low), iv. 100. The two systems of trade-winds are very unequal both as to force and stability.
1880. A. R. Wallace, Isl. Life, 225. The result would be an epoch of exceptional stability of species.
1881. J. Hooker, in Nature, No. 619. 445. The belief in the stability of climatal conditions during the lifetime of the existing assemblages of animals and plants.
† f. Put for: Source or cause of stability. Obs.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 45. The Essential Goodness and Wisdom of the Deity is the only Stability of all things.
g. Something fixed or settled.
1833. Chalmers, Constit. Man, I. I. i § 1. 57. Just as much as the properties of a triangle are the enduring stabilities of mathematical science.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Montaigne, Wks. (Bohn), I. 340. Adaptiveness is the peculiarity of human nature…. We are golden averages, volitant stabilities, compensated or periodic errors.
3. Of a person, his character or dispositions: The condition of ‘standing fast’; fixity of resolution or purpose; firmness, steadfastness. (The earliest recorded sense.)
13[?]. in Hampole’s Wks., I. 75. Ihesu … Take my hert in till þi hand, sett me in stabylte.
a. 1400. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxxii. 616. In al þe preyers he scholde in be Nis þer wiþ him [Lecherie] no stabulte.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 2940. And alle lovers that wole be Feithful, and ful of stabilite. Ibid., 5532. And for nought ellis wol he flee, If that he love in stabilitee.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 1934. Look that ye In trouthe, & in stablete Yee loue to-gydre.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 537. Tha war … So full of wisdome, gentres, and discretioun, With fredome, faith, and greit stabilitie.
1693. Owen, Holy Spirit, 71. It is hereon that our stability in Believing doth depend.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 383. His firm stability to what he scorns.
1813. J. Jebb, Lett., 11 July, in C. Forster, Corr. Jebb & Knox (1834), II. 142. Whoever truly loves what is stable, will adhere to it with stability of affection.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Character, Wks. (Bohn), II. 63. The stability of England is the security of the modern world. If the English race were as mutable as the French, what reliance?
b. In the Benedictine order (trans. L. stabilitas): see quots.
1516. Rule St. Benet, lviii. F 6 b. Whan she shall be reseyued she must … make a promisse of hir stabilite.
1657. Cressy, Father Baker’s Sancta Sophia, III. iv. § 18. 187. Let him that is to be receiued to a Religious Profession, promise … 1. A constant Stability in that state. 2. A conuersion of his Manners, and 3. Obedience…. And as for Stability, it regards both these [2 and 3], adding to them a perseuerance and a continuall progresse in both to the end.
1883. R. F. Littledale, in Encycl. Brit., XVI. 704/1. The method adopted [to extirpate irregular and vagrant monks] was the addition of a fourth vow, that of ‘stability.’… This fourth vow bound the monk to continuance in his profession, and even to residence for life at the monastery in which he was professed.
