locality

Etymology

It is borrowed from French localité^[2][3][4][5] or directly Late Latin locālitās,^[2][3][4][6] from locālis (“belonging to a place”),^[2][3][6] from locus (“a place, spot”).^[2] The French word is recorded from the 16th century.^[2] The OED, in its revised entry of 2015, treats the English word as formed from local and -ity, partly after the French word, which meant "place" from about 1590, and partly after the Late Latin one, which meant the quality of having a position in space from the 5th century.^[7] It is related to locale and location.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fact or quality of occupying space or having a definite position, often in theological writing: before 1538, in John Lambert's translation of St Augustine.^[7] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date this sense to 1628,^[3][9] and Etymonline to the 1620s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began as an abstract term of philosophy and theology, for the property of being in a place;^[7][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as existence in place, or relation of place or distance, and quoted Glanville on whether souls and angels have "grosser locality".^[10] In Scots law it was used from 1621 for the apportioning of a minister's stipend among landholders, and later for a wartime levy and for lands assigned to a widow in liferent, senses the English Dialect Dictionary also records.^[7][11] The concrete sense, the precise position of something, especially the place where a plant or mineral is found, appears in 1656,^[7] and a district or neighbourhood considered as the scene of something in 1770.^[7] Etymonline and Barnhart date the sense "geographical place or district" to 1830, Barnhart citing Lyell.^[2][3] In the 19th century the word also named the phrenological faculty of remembering places (1803) and, in psychology, the ability to tell where the skin is touched (1864).^[7]

Timeline

• before 1538 – the fact of occupying space, in theological contexts.^[7]
• 1621 – Scots law: the apportioning of a minister's stipend among landholders.^[7]
• 1628 – the fact of having a place or location.^[3][9]
• 1656 – the precise position of something, as of a plant or mineral.^[7]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as existence in place.^[10]
• 1770 – a district or neighbourhood as the scene of something.^[7]
• 1771 – localness, being restricted to one place.^[7]
• 1803 – in phrenology, the faculty of remembering places.^[7]
• 1830 – a geographical place or district.^[2][3]
• 1864 – psychology: the ability to locate a touch on the skin.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A neighbourhood, district or area: Residents of the locality were asked to boil their water.^[12][9][7]
2. The place where something is situated or where an event happens; in biology and mineralogy, the place where a specimen was found.^[12][9][7]
3. The fact or condition of having a position in space or time.^[12][9][7]
4. (archaic) The fact of being restricted to a particular place; localness.^[9][7]
5. (Scots law, obsolete, c. 1701–1872) Land or revenue assigned to a person, especially to a widow in liferent.^[7][11]

Related words

• local
• locale
• location
• locus
• localize

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins