partiality

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English parcialte, also partialte and parcialite,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French parcialité,^[4][5][3] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin partiālitās.^[4][6][2] Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English give the French form as parcialite.^[6][7] The Medieval Latin noun is formed from Late Latin partiālis (“divisible; partial”), the source of partial, with the suffix -tās,^[4][8][9] and that adjective is from Latin pars (“a part, a share”),^[3][7][6] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to grant, allot”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unfair favour to one side, bias: 1421, in a London document, "for any parcyalte þat he shal vse".^[2][4][3] Barnhart notes that this use comes before the corresponding sense of partial, recorded in 1425.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin had used the word for party spirit (13th century) and for a faction (1311), and French has the sense of bias from the first half of the 15th century.^[4] The milder sense of fondness or special liking is recorded before 1439 in Lydgate's Fall of Princes,^[4] though the Shorter Oxford dates it to the late 16th century.^[8] English also had "factiousness" (1520–1821) and "a faction" (before 1533 to 1623).^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it only as bias, an unequal judgment that favours one above another without just reason.^[10] The sense of being partial and not whole appeared in 1822 and has remained rare.^[4]

Timeline

• 1421 – unfair favouring of one party, bias.^[4][2][3]
• before 1439 – fondness or special liking.^[4]
• 1520 – rivalry, factiousness (obsolete by 1821).^[4]
• before 1533 – a faction or party (obsolete by 1623).^[4]
• 1601 – a political division, a province (obsolete, recorded once).^[4]
• 1822 – the quality of being partial, not whole.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Unfair favour towards one side or person; bias: The referee was accused of partiality.^[11][5][4]
2. A special liking or fondness, usually with for: a partiality for strong cheese.^[11][5][4]
3. (rare) The state of being partial and not whole.^[11][4]
4. (obsolete, 1520–1821) Rivalry; factiousness.^[4][8]
5. (obsolete, before 1533 to 1623) A faction or party.^[4][8]

Word family

• nonpartiality

Related words

• part
• impartial
• impartiality
• partialness

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ 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 c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins