Origin and history of objectivity

late 14c., "tangible thing, something perceived with or presented to the senses," from Old French object and directly from Medieval Latin obiectum "thing put before" (the mind or sight), noun use of neuter of Latin obiectus "lying before, opposite" (as a noun in classical Latin, "charges, accusations"), past participle of obicere "to present, oppose, cast in the way of," from ob "in front of, towards, against" (see ob-) + iacere "to throw" (from PIE root *ye- "to throw, impel").

Sense of "purpose, thing aimed at" is from early 15c., from Latin obiectus "that which presents itself to the sight." Meaning "that toward which a cognitive act is directed" is from 1580s. Grammatical sense of "a member of a sentence expressing that on which the action of the verb is exerted" is from 1729.

No object "not a thing regarded as important" is from 1782, in which the sense of object is "obstacle, hindrance" (c. 1500). As an adjective, "presented to the senses," from late 14c. Object-lesson "instruction conveyed by examination of a material object" is from 1831.

1610s, originally in the philosophical sense of "as perceived or thought; ideal; representative; phenomenal;" opposed to subjective or formal, formed on the pattern of Medieval Latin objectivus (Duns Scotus); from objectum "object" (see object (n.)); for ending see -ive.

Occasionally from mid-17c., as "pertaining or due to the real object of cognition; real," opposed to subjective (in the sense of "pertaining or due to the subject of cognition," that is, the mind), which nearly reverses the original meaning. The connecting notion might be "considered in relation to its own nature." The older meaning "continued the only one till the middle of the seventeenth century, and was the most familiar in English until the latter part of the eighteenth" [Century Dictionary], when it was boosted in translations from German (compare objectivity).

Kant makes the objects of experience to be at once real and phenomenal; and what he generally means by the objective character of a proposition is the force which it derives from the thing itself compelling the mind, after examination, to accept it. [Century Dictionary]

It is attested by 1838, of persons, art, writings, etc., "unbiased, impersonal, intent upon external objects of thought rather than one's sensations; setting forth external facts of matters as they exist or are supposed to exist and avoiding one's emotions and personality." It was influenced by this sense in German objektiv. Related: Objectively.

word-forming element making abstract nouns from adjectives and meaning "condition or quality of being ______," from Middle English -ite, from Old French -ete (Modern French -ité) and directly from Latin -itatem (nominative -itas), suffix denoting state or condition, composed of -i- (from the stem or else a connective) + the common abstract suffix -tas (see -ty (2)).

Roughly, the word in -ity usually means the quality of being what the adjective describes, or concretely an instance of the quality, or collectively all the instances; & the word in -ism means the disposition, or collectively all those who feel it. [Fowler]