incorruptibility

From Latin incorruptibilitas.

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incorruptibility (uncountable)

1. The condition of being incorruptible; honesty.
   • 1793, Charles Dibdin, chapter 8, in The Younger Brother‎, volume 2, page 85:

     In short—which is the strongest proof that can be given of the excellence of her heart, and the incorruptibility of her honour, she, at eighteen, was as spotless a character at Little Hockley, as the most innocent inhabitant of her age and sex could be at Castlewick.

   • 1895, Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband‎, act I:

     Nowadays, with our modern mania for morality, every one has to pose as a paragon of purity, incorruptibility, and all the other seven deadly virtues—and what is the result? You all go over like ninepins—one after the other.

   • 1948, Alan Paton, chapter 22, in Cry, the Beloved Country‎, New York: Scribner, page 158:

     In South Africa men are proud of their Judges, because they believe they are incorruptible. Even the black men have faith in them, though they do not always have faith in the Law. In a land of fear this incorruptibility is like a lamp set upon a stand, giving light to all that are in the house.

2. The condition of never decaying or decomposing (especially, as ascribed to the bodies of holy people in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity).
   • 1618, Anonymous translator, A Manuall of Devout Meditations and Exercises by Tomás de Villacastín, Book 3, Meditation 12, Point 1, p. 510, facsimile reprint in D. M. Rogers (editor), English Recusant Literature, 1558-1640, Volume 326, Menston: The Scolar Press, 1976,

     Gather hence great joy at the Resurrection of the B. Virgin, and the incorruptibility of her body, the rare and speciall priviledge graunted unto her by her most holy Son, who fullfilled the desires of her soule.

   • 1713, George Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous‎, London: Henry Clements, Dialogue 3, page 155:

     The Being of a God, and Incorruptibility of the Soul, those great Articles of Religion, are they not proved with the clearest and most immediate Evidence?

   • 1867, Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards‎, London: Chatto & Windus:

     The PEACOCK, in ancient times, was possessed of a mystic character. The fabled incorruptibility of its flesh led to its typifying the Resurrection; and from this incorruptibility, doubtless, originated the first idea of swearing “by the Peacock,” an oath that was to be inviolably kept.