regularity

Etymology

It is formed from English regular + -ity,^[2][3] perhaps after French régularité, recorded in Middle French from about 1370.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Etymonline and Klein take it instead as a borrowing of the French word,^[4][5][6] from Middle French regularité, built on Late Latin rēgulāris (“containing rules for guidance”) and the suffix -té.^[4][7] The OED compares Spanish regularidad (early 16th century), Portuguese regularidade (1611) and Italian regolarità (1561), and Medieval Latin regularitas, used in British sources for adherence to a monastic rule from the 12th century and for consistency or regularity from the early 13th.^[2] The Latin adjective is from rēgula (“rule, straight piece of wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state or quality of being regular: 1600, in C. Edmondes's observations on Caesar's Commentaries.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to about 1600,^[5] and the 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate to 1603.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective regular first meant subject to a religious rule; from the late 16th century it was extended to shapes, verbs and other things that follow a predictable or uniform pattern;^[5] the noun took over these senses as a group, the OED defining it as the quality of being regular "in various senses".^[2] By 1603, in P. Holland's translation of Plutarch's Morals, it could also be a count noun, a regular occurrence or something that follows a pattern or law.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as agreeableness to rule, and as method or certain order.^[10] The Shorter Oxford quotes it for the regularity of Newspeak grammar in Orwell, and for regular bowel habits in a Woman's Journal advertisement for a laxative food.^[3]

Timeline

• 1600 – the state or quality of being regular.^[2][4]
• 1603 – a regular occurrence; something that conforms to a pattern or law.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being regular: even in shape or arrangement, steady in timing, or in keeping with a rule or pattern: the regularity of the waves.^[4][9][2][3]
2. Something regular; a regular occurrence, or something that conforms to a trend or law.^[4][9][2]

Related words

• regular
• irregularity
• rule
• regulate
• regulation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.