Also 6 unycion. [ad. late L. ūnītion-, ūnītio, n. of action f. L. ūnīre: see UNITE v. Cf. OF. unition, unicion, It. unizione.] The action of uniting; the fact or condition of being united; union, conjunction, junction.
† a. Of ecclesiastical benefices. Obs.
1511–2. Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 17 § 14. The appropriacion, unycion, or consolidacione of the same Patronage … to the seid Abbot & Convent.
1564. Parker, Corr. (Parker Soc.), 214. This is to require you, if upon the understanding of the matter ye shall see cause to give out such an unition [of a benefice and a chapel], to grant it.
1587. Harrison, England, II. i. (1877), I. 21. The vnition of two [livings] in one man.
† b. Of material substances or bodies. Obs.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., III. i. vi. 93. The curation … is accomplisshed … by vnition, or coniunction of seperated or soundred partes.
1587. Harrison, Desc. Brit., in Holinshed, Chron., I. 78/1. After whose vnition with the aforesaid water, they run on as one till they meet with the Clothie.
1613. M. Ridley, Magn. Bodies, 78. To cause these Magneticall bodies to … turne away, to the end that they may better … dispose themselues to a conuenient and naturall vnition.
c. 1644. W. Chamberlayne, Pharon., II. iii. 255. Death’s large gripe did take Whole troops…, and in ’s march prevents The unition of unrallied regiments.
1699. Phil. Trans., XXI. 140. This Unition of Bones at their articulations.
1738. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 244. Motion hinders Unition in Wounds.
c. Of abstract things, persons, etc., in nonphysical or ideal union.
1584. Leycesters Commonw., 24. By this breach wyth Fraunce, we stand alone … wythout anie great vnition or friendship abrode.
1629. H. Burton, Truth’s Triumph, 106. That is the most singular … vnity, which consists not by vnition, but existeth by eternity.
a. 1680. Glanvill, Sadducismus, I. (1681), 174. The unition of Spirit with Matter.
1709. T. Robinson, Vind. Mosaick Syst., 21. The Seminal Forms being by a vital Unition conjoined to their Material Vehicles or Bodies.
1733. Watts, Philos. Ess., III. (1734), 85. The Union or rather Unition of a particular Soul and particular Body.
1816. [see UNICITY].
1871. W. H. Gillespie, Argt. Being & Attrib. God, IV. iii. (ed. 5), 159. The attributes, whose unition yields us this Holiness.
1873. B. Gregory, Holy Catholic Ch., xvi. 187. The ultimate unition and universal inclusiveness of the Church.
d. Of man and (to or with) the Deity. Now rare.
Sometimes distinguished from union (see quot. 1681).
1635. Jackson, Creed, VIII. 79. This part of the nature wounded … was first to bee perfectly cured, and throughly purified by personall unition to the Sonne of God.
1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, v. 94. There must be an unition before there can be a union with Christ. Unition is to be conceived efficiently as the work of God’s spirit, joyning the believer to Christ; and union is to be conceived formally, the joyning itself of the persons together.
1782. J. Brown, Nat. & Rev. Relig., III. ii. 232. Christ … signified his unition of his people into one mystical body with himself. Ibid. (1784), Hist. Brit. Ch. (1823), I. 343. Their regeneration and spiritual unition to him.
1845. Bailey, Festus (ed. 2), 323. The summit-flower of all created life Is its unition with Divinity.
