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precocity|prɪˈkɒsɪtɪ|
[ad. F. précocité (17th c.), f. L. type *præcocitās, f. præcox: see precoce.]
The quality of being precocious.
1. Of plants: Early flowering or ripeness.
1656Blount Glossogr., Precocity, early ripeness, forward⁓liness in ripening, over hastiness in ripening. 1875A. R. Wallace in Encycl. Brit. I. 86/2 The grain was very fine and well grown, which gave me the idea to..see if the following year it would preserve its precocity.
2. Early maturity, premature development.
1640Howell Dodona's Gr. 102 Imputing the cause of it [his fall] to a precocitie of Spirit and valour in him. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §35 From such foundations thou may'st be Happy in a Virtuous precocity, and make an early and long walk in Goodness. 1820Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 140 Their productions..bear the marks of precocity and premature decay. 1879Gladstone Glean. II. vi. 267 In a happy childhood he evinced extreme precocity.
b. transf. One in whom this quality is exemplified; a precocious child.
1882A. Matheson in Macm. Mag. XLVI. 488/2 George Eliot's children... They are not impossible cherubs, or wingless fairies, or idealised precocities. |