Etymologically
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locality

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ləʊˈkæl.ɪ.ti/[1]
  • US: /loʊˈkæl.ɪ.ti/[1]

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]

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