caducityn.
/kəˈdjuːsɪti/ 1. Tendency to fall; quality of being perishable or fleeting; transitoriness, frailty.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [noun] > decay or decaying > liability to
frailty1615
corruptibleness1620
corruptibilitya1680
perishableness1690
caducity1793
perishability1806
the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > swift movement of time > [noun] > transience
frailnessa1300
timelinessa1500
transitoriness1550
fleeting1616
temporality1635
wanzingness1642
transiency1647
impermanency1648
undurableness1648
transientness1653
fugacity1656
evanidness1659
fugaciousness1664
timeishness1674
timesomeness1674
volatilenessa1676
fleetingness1709
deciduousness1727
fleetness1727
momentaneousness1727
preterience1730
transience1739
evanescence1751
unpermanency1751
transitiveness1775
caducity1793
impermanence1796
ephemerality1822
passingness1839
transitionalness1880
anitya1882
diariness1891
anicca1904
ephemeralness1911
1793 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 47. 375 One of those evenings of autumn when the chilling damps of the air, and the caducity of nature, deepen the gloom of a melancholy mind.
1841 L. Hunt Seer (1864) ii. 60 The stages of human existence, the caducity of which the writer applies to the world at large.
1879 M. Pattison Milton 199 The ordinary caducity of language, in virtue of which every effusion of the human spirit is lodged in a body of death.
2. esp. The infirmity of old age, senility.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > age > old age > [noun] > decrepitude or senility
unelda1300
agec1405
decrepity1576
decrepitness1600
decrepitude1603
superannuation1655
decrepitage1670
decrepidity1760
caducity1769
Struldbrugism1778
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders associated with age > [noun] > of old age
superannuation1655
caducity1769
climacteric disease1813
involution1860
1769 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 11 Oct. (1932) (modernized text) VI. 2896 This melancholic proof of my caducity.
1776–88 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall lxi. (R.) Count Henry assumed the regency of the empire, at once in a state of childhood and caducity.
1815 W. Taylor in J. W. Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) II. 460 My father was attacked with symptoms of caducity.
1841 I. D'Israeli Amenities Lit. II. 180 The youth, the middle-age, and the caducity of the eminent personage.
3. Roman Law. Lapse of a testamentary gift.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > transfer of property > testamentary disposition > [noun] > a bequest or legacy > lapse of bequest
caducity1875
1875 E. Poste tr. Gaius Institutionum Iuris Civilis (ed. 2) ii. 264 The leges caducariæ, which fixed the conditions of caducity.
1880 J. Muirhead Inst. of Gaius & Rules of Ulpian Digest 464 If the party failing to take was sole heir, the caducity caused intestacy.
4. Zoology and Botany. Quality of being caducous.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > growth, movement, or curvature of parts > [noun] > condition of being deciduous or persistent
marcescence1855
caducity1881
the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > physical arrangement or condition > [noun] > shedding or detaching > falling off or being shed
caducity1881
1881 J. S. Gardner in Nature 26 May 75/1 The spores become detached before germination..this caducity always characterises the microspore.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1888; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1769