impertinencyn.

1569 T. Stocker tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. Successors Alexander f. 102^v By reason whereof suche as do read them, verie ofte passe ouer vnread the saide orations and declarations,..or else for the length & impertinencie are so weried, that they leaue all vnread.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xx. 164 O matter and impertinencie mixt reason in madnesse. View more context for this quotation

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 486 'Twould be endless to..shew all the silliness and impertinency in the Matter of the Epistles.

1728 H. Bell Hist. Ess. Orig. of Painting i. 5 Having made this necessary Digression to vindicate from Impertinency what we may hereafter introduce concerning Sculpture, Plastick, &c. we shall again reassume our first Purpose.

1783 Westm. Mag. Feb. 65/2 Voltaire, on the credit of this circumstance, amongst a heap of impertinency..pretends boldly that he took the hint from a Comedy he saw at Florence.

1825 L. Bigelow Digest Reported Cases Supreme Court Mass. 327 Evidence will be rejected as well for its impertinency as for its incompetency.

1884 Law Times 78 115/2 Motion that..several parts..of the bill of costs..might be expunged for scandal and impertinency.

1906 Cases Supreme Court Florida 51 361 A motion to strike out evidence that has been introduced in a cause must be predicated upon some feature of irrelevancy, incompetency, legal inadmissibility, or impertinency in the evidence itself.

1988 Classical Philol. 76 204 The historical question is irrelevant as far as our interest in Plutarch is concerned, but impertinency has rarely proved a hindrance to the proffering of conjectures.

1618 J. Taylor Pennyles Pilgrimage sig. B4^v But leauing these impertinencies, in the materiall Sunne-shine, wee eate a substantiall Dinner.

1652 Coll. Orders heretofore used in Chauncery 6 Without long and needless traverses of points not traversable, tautologies, multiplication of words, or other impertinencies.

1706 J. Hussey Glory Christ Unveil'd xlvi. 890 (heading) Of Mr. John Hunt's Impertinencies, or Wandrings from his Text.

a1750 C. Middleton Misc. Wks. (1752) II. 214 He affirms the twelve last pages of it to be nothing less, but one thorough impertinency, from the beginning to the end.

1838 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 356 His decided rejection of fallacies, impertinencies, and all frivolous, collateral points that so commonly arrest or distract men of weak judgment.

1848 Times 13 May 4/4 Expressions which, so far as they..led the mind entirely away from the question before the house, might be called sheer impertinencies.

1573 J. Bridges Supremacie Christian Princes 781 This indeede were somewhat oratorlyke, if it were not so apparant an vntruth, that euery body might behold the falshood therof, the malice of you, and the impertinencie of the quarrell.

1613 Sir R. Dudley in J. Rushworth Hist. Coll. Private Passages State 1618–29 (1682) App. 12 (heading) A Proposition..to bridle the Impertinency of Parliaments.

1691 J. Hartcliffe Treat. Virtues 30 The Impertinency of worldly business is not yet become a burden too heavy for the mind to bear.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Astrology You boast much of the Event of a few Predictions, which, considering the Multitude of those your Art has produced, plainly confess its impertinency.

1751 G. Lavington Second Let. to Whitfield 32 The Impertinency of such Dispute, among Christians, who have been baptized in their Infancy.

1827 S. T. Coleridge Let. 28 Nov. (1971) VI. 715 The utter shallowness and impertinency of all the pretended Theories hitherto advanced.

1847 Christian Remembrancer July 12 He expressly declares the inadequacy, as well as the impertinency, of his method to elucidate things divine.

1588 W. Travers Def. Eccl. Discipline 188 His next note in the margent vpon Gellius his wordes is, that certayne of the Prophetes and Apostles exercised also the office of the Magistrate. This is another of his impertinencies, I might saye vntruethes.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xix. 168 A very foolish impertinency of speech, and not a figure.

1603 R. Charnock Reply Notorious Libell intituled Briefe Apol. 180 Vnlesse he thought it too worthy a thing to be inserted among so many foolish and friuolous impertinencies, as with which this Apologie doth swarme.

1651 J. Howell S.P.Q.V. 54 It were as absurd an impertinency to prefer a Farrier to Venice, as it was in him who wold have prefer'd a Spurrier to Queen Elizabeth.

1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. li. 320 What Nursery Impertinencies are these, to trouble a Man with!

1793 W. Cowper Let. 5 Oct. (1984) IV. 411 My good intentions towards you..are continually frustrated..by mere impertinencies, such as calls of civility.

1826 R. Southey Let. 2 May in Select. from Lett. (1856) IV. 1 The follies and impertinencies and nothingnesses with which I am pestered.

1894 J. A. Kersey Ethics of Lit. x. 221 Apologetics is an impertinency—from the concession it impliedly makes of the plausibility of the opposites of its own propositions.

1923 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 May 302/2 Though they may slip too lightly over the deeps of character, they seize its oddities, extravagances, impertinencies with merciless assurance.

1988 New Lit. Crit. 20 43 How do you know when you have ceased to elucidate a text and begun instead to saturate it with trifles and impertinencies?

1609 H. Wotton Let. 31 July (modernized text) in L. P. Smith Life & Lett. Sir H. Wotton (1907) I. 464 Whereunto he had been forced by the impertinency of his slanderers.

1653 H. Holcroft tr. Procopius Gothick Warre iii. 106 in tr. Procopius Hist. Warres Justinian We are amazed at the impertinency of these Gepædes; who..come here to offer the foulest scorne that can be.

1716 J. Digby tr. A. de Wicquefort Embassador & his Functions xxvii. 255/2 The Impertinency of the English Merchants, in causing an Embassador to be cited before a Turkish Judge.

1772 Chinese Traveller I. 92 The first moral principle..injoins children such a love, obedience, and respect for their parents, that neither the severity of their treatment, the impertinency of their old age, or the meanness of their rank..can ever efface.

1847 tr. M. de Montaigne in Emancipator (Boston) 17 Mar. 1/7 Impertinency is a scurvy quality.

1891 Fishing Gaz. 4 Apr. 217/2 Here..he can enjoy his sport without the impertinency of sight-seers, bathers, or frolicking boys shying stones to scare the fish away.

2004 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 4 Jan. 21 My Lord Hutton would..sentence the Miscreant with an additional Severity on account of his gross Impertinency to the Court.

1620 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes 2nd Pt. Don Quixote xlvii. 312 I meane to helpe him to furnish his house, for they will liue by themselues, without being subiect to the impertinencies [Sp. impertinencias] of fathers in Lawes.

a1665 K. Digby Jrnl. Voy. to Mediterranean (1868) 58 For some impertinencies and arrogancies did putt my chiefe masters mate out of his place.

1710 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 20 July (1965) I. 43 You have allready forgiven me greater Impertinencies.

1770 I. Bickerstaff 'Tis Well it's no Worse v. i. 93 Come, a truce with these impertinencies.

1842 C. Dickens Amer. Notes II. vi. 171 There they are not the custom, and..would be impertinencies.

1896 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 19 Dec. 4/4 People who treat themselves with due respect are seldom worried by impertinencies from others.

2014 Daily Tel. 21 Feb. (Sport section) 20/2 Twickenham has always been a stranger to impertinencies of that kind.