[ad. med.L. *ūnicitās (whence F. unicité, It. unicitá, Sp. unicidad), or f. L. ūnic-us one, unique: see -ITY.]
1. The fact of being or consisting of one in number or kind; oneness.
1691. J. Howe, Wks. (1834), 147/2. The most unquestionable unity or unicity of the Godhead.
1694. R. Burthogge, Reason & Nat. Spirits, 166. Composition is Unity, but simplicity is Unicity.
1817. Coleridge, ‘Blessed are ye that sow,’ 55. For Unity or Unition, and indistinguishable Unicity or Oneness, are incompatible terms.
1849. Alford, Grk. Testament, I. 608. The καινότης of this commandment consists in its simplicity and (so to speak) unicity.
1880. C. I. Black, Proselytes of Ishmael, 301. What our so-called Unitarians teach is … the Unicity of the Godhead.
b. Med. The theory that syphilis is caused by only one kind of venereal virus.
1861. Bumstead, Ven. Dis., 349. Some explanation … of what was called by its discoverer [Ricord] the ‘unicity’ of syphilis.
2. The fact or quality of being unique; unique nature or character.
1859. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., V. 106/1. Bernard then goes on to prove, by the method of elimination, the unicity and propriety of this property of the pancreatic secretion.
1887. Saintsbury, Hist. Elizab. Lit., 91. Which … gives The Faerie Queene its unique unicity, if such a conceit may be pardoned.
