inconstancy

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin incōnstantia (“inconstancy, fickleness”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an abstract noun from incōnstāns (“changeable, fickle”),^[3][6] from in- (“not”) and cōnstāns (“standing firm”), the present participle of cōnstō (“to stand firm”).^[6][3] The English ending is -ancy.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) also named French inconstance beside the Latin word and the adjective inconstant.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fickleness of conduct or purpose in a person, or in something personified such as Fortune: 1526, in W. Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfection.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the same year,^[4] and Etymonline the 1520s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The older inconstance, of French origin, is recorded from about 1386, in Chaucer, and lived on beside it until 1712.^[2] It moved from people to things in the early 17th century, meaning the mutability or irregularity of events and conditions: 1613 in the OED,^[2] the 1610s in Etymonline.^[3] From 1565 to 1605 it could mean inconsistency in statements.^[2][5] From 1581 into the early 17th century it stood for incontinency, as an alteration of that word.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as unsteadiness and mutability of temper or affection, and quoted The Merry Wives of Windsor: "the villanous inconstancy of man".^[7]

Timeline

• 1526 – fickleness, changeableness of character.^[2][4]
• 1565 – inconsistency in statements, or an instance of it (obsolete by 1605).^[2]
• 1581 – used for incontinency (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1613 – of things or events, variability, irregularity.^[2]
• 1646 – variation, difference (obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being fickle or unfaithful; changeableness of mind or affection: Her friends had long since stopped being surprised by his inconstancy.^[4][2][5]
2. Lack of uniformity; variability or irregularity in things or events: the inconstancy of mountain weather.^[4][2][5]
3. An instance of changeableness.^[4][2]
4. (obsolete, 1565–1605) Inconsistency, especially in statements.^[2][5][4]
5. (obsolete) Incontinence.^[2][5]

Related words

• inconstant
• constant
• constancy
• inconstance

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.