innocency
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin innocēntia, from innocēns (“innocent”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
innocency (countable and uncountable, plural innocencies)
- (uncountable, archaic) Innocence; 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.
- (uncountable, archaic) Innocence, simplicity, lack of deceit or guile.
- (uncountable, archaic) Innocence, harmlessness.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:
- That Glass is poison, according unto common conceit, I know not how to grant. Not onely from the innocency of its ingredients…
- (archaic) An innocence; an innocent idea or thing.
- 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience […] [1], London: Folio Society, published 2008, page 69:
- 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.