nominalityn.
/ˌnɒmᵻˈnalᵻti/, U.S. /ˌnɑməˈnælədi/ 1. A merely nominal thing or condition.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > insubstantial
triflec1290
vainc1330
winda1382
vapour1382
gossamer?a1400
visevase1481
good morrow1542
cobweb1579
superficial1579
puff1583
bladder1589
blathery1591
froth1594
bag of winda1599
moth1600
nominala1625
tumour1630
windlestraw1637
vacuity1648
balloon1656
blank1678
breath bubble1835
nominality1842
fluff1906
cotton candy1931
the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance > something lacking substance > a thing existing in name only
nominala1625
titulado1659
nominality1842
nominis umbrac1874
unobtainium1956
1842 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Jan. 92 This sliding tariff growing less and less, and tapering to a point of nominality, as famine, with her thousand horrors, approaches.
1880 A. D. Whitney Odd or Even? i Slidden from his old-fashioned, steady inherited business into the nominalities.
1922 Econ. Jrnl. 32 40 The essence of the change of standards is the preservation and transfer of the obligation, which during the process of change is disembodied, existing only in a condition of ‘Nominality’.
1974 Compar. Stud. Society & Hist. 16 274 The example of the interim capital of Pakistan..further confirms..the low skills of the labor force, and the nominality of its occupational urbanism.
2001 F. M. Bliss Faith seeking Understanding 128 The Sacrament does not introduce people to a realm of mere nominality, but to a kingdom where real power resides.
2. The view that the perception of things or facts is governed by the words used to describe them.
ΚΠ
1965 Jrnl. Hist. Ideas 26 374 He shows a preference for the theory that the relation between the two with respect to quality is nominality.
1988 Eng. Lit. Hist. 55 370 Both the beauties and the deficiencies of Hobbes's language proceed from its thoroughgoing nominality, his attempt to reduce words to the status of simple, rational signs.
1996 P. Morrison Poetics of Fascism 88 Joel Fineman argues that the history of the philosophy of proper names is ‘the progressive and increasingly dogmatic subordination..of nominal reference’..to a nominality that denotes only nominality.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1842