irregularity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French irregularité, recorded in French from the 14th century,^[2][3] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin irrēgulāritās, a word found in Aquinas.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun is from irrēgulāris (“not regular”),^[2][5][6] the source of irregular, which is formed from the prefix in- (“not”) and rēgulāris (“having rules”).^[3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English class the Latin words as Late Latin rather than Medieval Latin,^[7][8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged does so for the adjective alone.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An offence against the rules for entering or exercising holy orders, or the bar on a cleric that resulted: before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2][4][3] In that passage a priest is to ask a cleric in holy orders about irregularite, and Margery Kempe uses the word of a priest who needs a dispensation from the Court of Rome.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of church law, a use the OED labels as chiefly Roman Catholic.^[2][7] It widened to any breach of a rule or a lawless act by 1483, and to the general state of not conforming to a rule by 1598.^[2][3] In the 1640s it was first applied to shape and arrangement, as a lack of symmetry or evenness, in Sir T. Browne.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave "deviation from rule", "neglect of method and order" and "inordinate practice", to which his 1773 edition added "vice".^[9] The plural now often implies dishonest conduct, especially in accounts or government.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records it as a word for occasional constipation.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1300 – an offence against the rules of holy orders.^[2][4]
• 1483 – a breach of a rule or principle, a disorderly act, in the Catholicon Anglicum.^[2][3]
• 1598 – lack of conformity to a rule, in Florio.^[2][3]
• 1646 – lack of symmetry or evenness, in Sir T. Browne.^[2][3]
• 1665 – an uneven or unsymmetrical part, in Hooke's Micrographia.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state or quality of being irregular; lack of evenness, symmetry or a steady rate: an irregularity of the pulse.^[10][6][2]
2. Something irregular, such as a bump on a surface that should be smooth.^[10][2]
3. A breach of a rule or normal procedure, especially, in the plural, dishonest conduct: irregularities in the club's finances.^[10][6][2]
4. (ecclesiastical) An offence against the rules of holy orders, or the resulting bar on a cleric.^[2][7]
5. Occasional constipation.^[6]

Related words

• irregular
• regular
• regularity

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins