innocency
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin innocēntia, from innocēns (“innocent”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
innocency (countable and uncountable, plural innocencies)
- (uncountable, archaic) Synonym of innocence:
- Harmlessness.
- 1646, Thomas Browne, chapter II, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 5:
- That Glass is poison, according unto common conceit, I know not how to grant. Not onely from the innocency of its ingredients […]
- Lack of deceit or guile; simplicity.
- The state of being free from guilt or moral wrong.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 11, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- The verie names of Goodnesse and innocentie, are for this respect in some sort names of contempt.
- 1629, Joseph Hall, The Reconciler:
- And let the wilful or ignorant mistakers know, that they wound innocency.
- Harmlessness.
- (countable, archaic) An innocent idea or thing; an innocence.
- 1902, William James, “Lectures IV and V: The Religion of Healthy-mindedness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 80:
- It is to be hoped that we all have some friend, […] whose affinities are rather with flowers and birds and all enchanting innocencies, than with dark human passions, […]
References[edit]
- “innocency”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.