humanity
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English
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English humanyte, humanite, humanitye. By surface analysis, human + -ity. Partly displaced mankind, from Old English mancynn (literally “human race”).
Pronunciation
Noun
humanity (countable and uncountable, plural humanities)
- Humankind; human beings as a group.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:humankind
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
- 1962 April, J. N. Faulkner, “Summer Saturday at Waterloo”, in Modern Railways, page 265:
- At last the concourse is relatively clear of humanity and the task of clearing up can begin.
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].
- The human condition or nature.
- The quality of being benevolent; humane traits of character; humane qualities or aspects.
- Synonym: humaneness
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ship”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 90:
- Think of that; by that sweet girl that old man had a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities!
- , The American Humane Education Society, “Kiling Animals Humanely”, in A[nna] Sewell, Black Beauty: , American edition, Boston, Mass.: he American Humane Education Society, →OCLC:
- Killing Animals Humanely. Humanity requires that animals be killed in the quickest and least painful manner. The following circular has been sent by our American Humane Education Society very widely through the country.
- Any academic subject belonging to the humanities.
- Philosophy is a humanity while psychology is a science.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
human beings as a group — see also mankind
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human condition
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quality of being benevolent
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References
Further reading
- “humanity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- humanity in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
- "humanity" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 148.
- “humanity”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “humanity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.