passivityn.
/pəˈsɪvᵻti/, U.S. /pæˈsɪvᵻdi/, /pəˈsɪvᵻdi/ I. General uses.† 2. Capability of (physical or mental) suffering. Cf. passibility n. Obsolete.
1.
a. The quality or condition of being subject to an external force; the state of being affected or acted upon by an external cause or agent. Also as a count noun: an instance of being acted on by an external agent, a passive quality; (in extended use) a thing that is merely passive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > operation upon something > [noun] > subjecting to an action or process > undergoing or reception of action
passion?a1425
suffering1577
perception1626
undergoing1645
perpession1647
passivity1659
affection1759
1659 H. More Immortality of Soul ii. ii. 128 The Animal Spirits in Man..were the very Soule of the Body, and common percipient of all Motions..by reason of the tenuity, passivity and neare homogeneity and imperceptibility of any change or alteration.
a1667 Bp. J. Taylor Serm. in Wks. (1831) III. x. (R.) God in the creation of this world first produced a mass of matter, having nothing in it but an obediential capacity and passivity.
1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature (1724) ix. 187 These..affections of matter..are proofs of its passivity, deadness, and utter incapacity of becoming cogitative.
1865 D. Masson Recent Brit. Philos. iii. 184 The mind must be more than a mere passivity or receiving-surface.
1885 J. Martineau Types Ethical Theory I. i. i. ii. §2. 156 The liability of matter to be shaped, and the liability of the mind to have perceptions and ideas, are pure passivities.
1958 T. D. Weldon Introd. to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (ed. 2) iv. 132 Thus there really is a marked distinction between the activity of the understanding and the passivity of sensibility.
1989 G. A. McCool From Unity to Pluralism iv. 95 As a spiritual power, the intellect does not share in the material receptive passivity of the senses.
b. Grammar. Passive meaning or construction; the passive voice.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > voice > [noun] > passive > quality of
passiveness1845
passivity1871
1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue ix. 438 This of as the instrument of passivity has been displaced, and by has been substituted.
1873 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2) ix. 485 The preposition with..in the fourteenth century..was used like the by of passivity.
1965 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 10 175 They [sc. classifiers] refer most clearly to the voice of the verb:..passivity, reflexivity.
1986 Amer. Speech 61 202 Syntactic features of present-day Barbadian include..noninversion of questions..and special treatment of passivity (/it/ ‘be eaten’).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > [noun]
passibilitya1398
passibleness?a1425
sensibleness?a1425
sensibility?c1425
sense1538
perceptibility1642
sensitiveness1651
passivity1664
aesthesia1829
sentience1839
sentiencya1850
sensitivity1856
sensation1869
1664 H. More Second Lash of Alazonomastix 517 The passivity of that divinity lodging in Christ.
1684 R. Baxter Catholick Communion 20 As Man, his knowledge and will must have some~what of Passivity, though not of Pain.
3. Absence of activity, involvement, participation, or exertion; inertness; inertia.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > [noun]
sleepc897
restc1175
passibilityc1485
slumber1554
cessation1603
quiescence1625
torpor1626
quiescency1629
inaction1638
inactivity1640
vacation1644
unactiveness1647
non-acting1648
passiveness1648
requiescence1654
unactivity1654
inertness1661
passivity1667
inactiveness1678
unaction1698
stagnation1711
supinity1725
immechanism1740
inertion1756
repose1757
lifelessness1833
stagnancy1837
unawakenedness1879
stasis1920
1667 E. Waterhouse Short Narr. Fire London 115 The passivity of a potent Army and Party formerly against him.
1740 G. Cheyne Ess. Regimen 311 Its Passivity or Inertia cannot be infinit, but lessens as its Density does.
1826 J. M. Good Bk. Nature I. iv. 77 Passivity, inertia, or vis inertiæ, is the tendency in a body to persevere in a given state, whether of rest or motion.
1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles III. li. 193 The four sang on with the phlegmatic passivity of persons who had long ago settled the question.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 589/1 The activity of one of the gametes, and the passivity of the other, is regarded as evidence of incipient sex.
1923 U. L. Silberrad Lett. Jean Armiter ii. 37 She does nothing with a passivity wonderful in a girl of her age, neither looking at her fellow beachers..or playing with the children.
1987 J. Uglow George Eliot vi. 108 Hetty is hardly an actor in her own drama. Her story is one of passivity rather than action.
2002 N.Y. Times 8 Sept. iv. 3/2 Throughout American history, each institution has gone through cycles of muscle-flexing and relative passivity.
4. Submission or tendency to submit to external force or to another's will; absence of resistance or opposition; submissiveness.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > obedience > submissiveness > [noun]
yieldingc1425
submission?a1439
passive obediencea1602
submissiveness1608
submissness1613
yieldingness1613
yokeablenessa1638
yieldableness1645
passivity1681
1681 H. More Plain Expos. Daniel v. Notes 155 The purity, mildness and passivity of their Spirits.
a1853 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1855) 1st Ser. ii. 33 The soul resigns itself in pure passivity.
1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems xxviii. 10 You did aptly finger My passivity, fool'd me most supinely.
1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day i. 21 The distinctive pleasure I obtained from being driven in a car, committed to the person driving it, delighted by an almost sexual feeling of passivity.
1996 Uri Geller's Encounters Dec. 36/2 What's so scary about alien abductions and other kinds of forcible contact is the utter passivity of the victims.
II. Technical and specialist uses.
5.
a. Chemistry and Metallurgy. The state of chemical inactivity of a passive substance, esp. a metal that has a thin inert surface layer of oxide. Cf. passive adj. 9b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > reactivity > passivity
passivity1866
1866 R. M. Ferguson Electricity 140 The passivity of iron can be produced in various ways.
1881 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 40 344 Passivity may be induced in a rod of iron by the immersion of a part only in concentrated nitric acid.
1940 S. Glasstone Text-bk. Physical Chem. xii. 1010 The resemblances between a metal rendered passive by chemical and electrochemical methods is very marked, and there is little doubt that the fundamental cause of passivity is the same in each case.
1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) III. 488/1 Passivity is usually due to surface films which act as barriers between the metal and its environment.
1998 Appl. Surface Sci. 135 188 The passivity of mild steel was found to be markedly dependent upon the acid concentration.
b. Psychiatry. The state or condition of being unusually inactive or lacking in normal responsiveness, often indicated by feelings of apathy or helplessness, and sometimes present as a sign of mental illness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > impairment of mental powers > impaired responsiveness
perseveration1907
passivity1927
overinclusion1939
1927 D. K. Henderson & R. D. Gillespie Text-bk. Psychiatry 88 In other cases the patient believes that someone reads his thoughts... These later conditions are examples of ‘passivity’.
1952 W. Wolff Threshold of Abnormal xviii. 436 Passivity may appear as apathy, as anxiety, as helplessness.
1989 J. A. B. Collier & J. M. Longmore Oxf. Handbk. Clin. Specialties (ed. 2) iv. 358 Passivity feelings: ‘Someone is directing me: I'm their robot.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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