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Origin and history of entirety

entirety(n.)

"wholeness, completeness, state of being entire or whole," also entierty, mid-14c., enterete, intierty, from Anglo-French entiertie, Old French entiereté "totality, entirety; integrity, purity," from Latin integritatem (nominative integritas) "completeness, soundness, integrity," from integer (see integer).

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to entirety

integer(n.)

"a whole number" (as opposed to a fraction), 1570s, from noun use of Latin integer (adj.) "intact, whole, complete," figuratively, "untainted, upright," literally "untouched," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + root of tangere "to touch" (from PIE root *tag- "to touch, handle"). The word was used earlier in English as an adjective in the Latin sense, "whole, entire" (c. 1500).

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    foot
    To foot a bill "pay the entirety of" is attested from 1848, from the process of tallying the expenses and writing the figure...
    be
    The modern verb to be in its entirety represents the merger of two once-distinct verbs, the "b-root" represented by be and...
    works
    Old English, "(someone's) deeds, acts, or actions, the things one has done in life," often especially "good deeds, acts of piety, demonstrations of virtue," plural of work (n.). Meaning "operations pertinent to maintaining a large physical place" (private, religious, or municipal
    kind
    "class, sort, variety," from Old English gecynd "kind, nature, race," related to cynn "family" (see kin), from Proto-Germanic *kundjaz "family, race," from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups. Ælfric's rend
    instinct
    early 15c., "a prompting" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French instinct (14c.) or directly from Latin instinctus "instigation, impulse, inspiration," noun use of past participle of instinguere "to incite, impel," from in- "into, in, on, upon" (from PIE root *en "in") + stingue
    dandy
    "man who draws attention by unusual finery of dress and fastidiousness manners, a fop," c. 1780, of uncertain origin; attested earliest in a Scottish border ballad: I've heard my granny crack O' sixty twa years back When there were sic a stock of Dandies O etc. In that regi
    Rasputin
    acquired name (Russian, literally "debauchee") of Grigory Yefimovich Novykh (c. 1872-1916), mystic and faith healer who held sway over court of Nicholas II of Russia. His nickname is from his doctrine of "rebirth through sin," that true holy communion must be preceded by immersio
    quench
    Middle English quenchen, "to extinguish, put out" (heat, light, fire, also of desire, hunger, thirst), also figurative, "to bring to naught, eliminate, render ineffectual" (c. 1200), Old English acwencan "to quench" (of fire, light), from Proto-Germanic *kwenkjanan, probably a ca
    seedy
    mid-15c., sēdi, "fruitful, abundant" (Of bounteuousnesse þat hous was ful sedy), from seed (n.) + -y (2). From 1570s as "abounding in seeds." The modern meaning "shabby, no longer fresh or new" is attested by 1725, slang, originally especially "poor, out of money;" probably in re
    steward
    Middle English steuard, steward, "official in charge of the domestic affairs of a (large) household," from Old English stiward, stigweard "one who has charge of the affairs of the household or estate of another," from stig "hall, pen for cattle, part of a house" (see sty (n.1)) +

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