inequalityn.
The state or condition of being unequal; want of equality.
1. Want of equality between persons or things; disparity:
a. in respect of magnitude, quantity, number, intensity, or other physical quality.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > inequality > [noun]
unevenness1398
disparagec1430
inequality1531
unequality?1541
odds1542
unequalness?1548
unegalness1561
imparity1563
disparity1597
disequality1602
disparison1609
inadequation1631
inequivalence1879
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > inequality > [noun] > in respect of power or excellence
inequality1553
1531 T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour iii. i. sig. Xviii Iustyce commutatiue..onely considerynge the inequalitie, wherby the one thynge excedeth the other, indeuoureth to brynge them bothe to an equalitie.
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 27 Proportion of inæqualitie is, when two things of vnequall quantitie are compared togither.
1674 R. Boyle Excellency Theol. ii. iv. 177 It remains doubtful, whether the differing sizes [of the fixed stars]..proceed from a real inequality of bulk, or onely from an inequality of distance.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. x. 140 Inequalities in the wages of labour and profits of stock. View more context for this quotation
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 430 Should the inequality of tension be occasioned by any original inequality of thickness in the strands.
1858 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) III. xiii. 94 The growing inequality of fortunes had broken through this useful custom.
b. In respect of dignity, rank, or circumstances: Social disparity; the fact of occupying a more or a less advantageous position.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > inequality > [noun] > of rank or circumstances
inequality1484
1484 W. Caxton tr. Ordre of Chyualry (1926) vii. 104 Pryde is a vyce of Inequalyte or to be inegal to other and not lyke.
1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. O3 The apostles..amongst whom was no superiority, inequalitie, or principallitie at all.
1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 135 Betwixt Othoman and her was great inequalitie... She was (as she said) but meanly borne, and therefore was not to expect so great a match.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1773 I. 396 She wondered how he could reconcile..his notions of inequality and subordination with wishing well to..all mankind.
1801 M. Edgeworth Forester in Moral Tales I. 2 The inequality between the rich and the poor shocked him.
c. In respect of excellence, power, or adequacy. Also, A condition of superiority or inferiority in relation to something, esp. the condition of being unequal to a task, insufficiency, inadequacy.
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the world > action or operation > ability > inability > [noun] > for what is required
incompetency1611
inequality1709
1553 R. Eden in tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India Ded. sig. aaiij There seemed too me no lesse inequalitye betwene the tytle and the booke, then if a man woulde professe to wryte of Englande, and entreated onelye of Trumpington.
1698 R. South 12 Serm. III. 265 The Nature of the Things themselves, which are the Subject matter of the Christian Religion..Their surpassing Greatness and Inequality to the mind of Man.
1709 S. Centlivre Busie Body Ded. Conscious of the Inequality of a Female Pen to so Masculine an Attempt.
1777 R. Watson Hist. Reign Philip II II. xiv. 38 When she considered the inequality of the dispute between him and the Flemings.
1899 Cheyne in Expositor Apr. 258 There are no doubt stylistic inequalities in the different Psalms.
2. † a. Of persons: Unequal treatment of others; unfair dealing, unfairness, partiality.
ΚΠ
a1555 H. Latimer 5th Serm. Lord's Prayer in 27 Serm. (1562) f. 37v What meaneth God by this inequalitie that he giueth to somme an .100. pounde, vnto this man .5000. pound vnto this man in a maner nothing at all.
b. Or things: Want of due proportion, uneven distribution. With an and plural, an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > disharmony or incongruity > unsuitability or inappropriateness > [noun] > quality of being disproportionate
distemperance1340
unproportionatenessa1398
improportionc1450
inequalitya1538
disproportion1555
distemperment1582
misproportionateness1587
misproportion1596
unproportionableness1610
distemper1612
unproportiona1626
disproportionality1642
disproportionatedness1647
incommensuration1650
disproportionableness1651
overproportion1666
disproportionateness1668
incommensurateness1727
unproportionality1818
a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 122 The chefe..cause of al sedycyon..that ys to say the inequalyte of dystrybutyon of the commyn offycys.
a1674 T. Traherne Christian Ethicks (1675) 478 If we shall not be liberal to one another, it is a strange inequality.
1740 W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses v. iv, in Wks. (1811) V. 145 We sometimes find men complaining of inequalities in events, which were indeed the effects of a most equal Providence.
1859 J. Bright Speeches 4 I could show you inequalities as great and scandalous in the manner in which the income-tax..presses and is imposed upon the owners of the soil.
3. Want of uniformity in a thing, person, or process; unevenness, irregularity, variableness:
a. in surface or outline. With an and plural: an irregularity of surface or outline; a rise or fall of the ground.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > [noun]
unevenness1398
asperitya1492
ruggedness1530
raggedness1538
grabbedness1565
craggedness1598
implanitude1598
inequality1607
salebrosity1638
salebrity1656
salebrousness1727
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 423 The roughnesse and inequality of the place grieued, one part being higher then another.
a1650 G. Boate Irelands Nat. Hist. (1652) i. 5 The inequality of the coast, and of the great Bayes and Fore-lands.
1692 J. Ray Wisdom of God (ed. 2) ii. 109 To find out the side towards which the inequality of the ground might more easily permit it to rowl its Shell.
1801 W. Coxe Hist. Tour Monmouthshire I. 117 The distant country is broken into fine inequalities of hill and dale.
1874 J. A. Symonds Sketches Italy & Greece (1898) I. i. 4 These inequalities in the surface of the earth which we call Alps.
1878 T. H. Huxley Physiogr. (ed. 2) 135 The water soon finds out some slight inequalities of surface.
b. in motion, action, or condition; in duration or recurrence; in rate or proportion; in manner, quality, degree, or other respect in which a thing is liable to variation. With an and plural: an instance of such unevenness.
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the world > relative properties > relationship > variety > [noun] > variety of form or non-uniformity
deformitya1544
difformity1580
inequability1581
disformity1600
irregularness1609
inconstancy1613
inconformity1625
inequality1626
irregularity1646
nonconformity1672
anomaly1686
disuniformity1710
ununiformness1716
ununiformity1749
heteromorphism1839
non-uniformity1852
raggedness1882
the world > relative properties > relationship > variety > [noun] > variety of form or non-uniformity > that which is not uniform with the rest
inequality1626
irregularity1665
inhomogeneity1899
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §700 Inequality [of sounds], not Stayed vpon, but Passing, is rather an Encrease of Sweetnesse.
1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 316 Whatsoever doth not hang well together, bewrayeth it selfe..by an inequalitie of colour.
1671 W. Salmon Synopsis Medicinæ ii. xlvi. 308 The inequality of the Pulse continuing is an evil sign.
1748 B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Anson i. viii. 77 These tempests..were yet rendered more mischievous to us by their inequality, and the deceitful intervals which they at some-times afforded.
1753 J. Hanway Hist. Acct. Brit. Trade Caspian Sea II. liii. 367 The inequality of our climate.
1797 S. T. Coleridge in J. Cottle Early Recoll. (1837) I. 250 In Wordsworth there are no inequalities.
1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 55 (note) The inequalities observable both in his style and versification.
1833 N. Arnott Elem. Physics (ed. 5) II. 9 Owing merely to an inequality of temperature.
4. Astronomy. A deviation from uniformity in the motion of a heavenly body.The older astronomers reckoned four inequalities, two common to planets and the moon, and two confined to the moon. first inequality: that which is due to the eccentricity of the orbit, and the acceleration of motion at a planet's perihelion or the moon's perigee. second inequality: that which arises from the obliquity of the direction of the planet's motion to the radius vector of its orbit; = evection n. 2a. third inequality: = variation n. (of the moon). fourth inequality: that due to the more rapid motion of the moon when the earth is in perihelion; also called annual inequality or annual equation. Later astronomers have discovered several others, as parallactic inequality (see quot. 18611); periodic inequality, the comparatively short recurring orbital perturbation due to the attraction of another body, as the great inequality of Jupiter and Saturn.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > heavenly body > movement of heavenly bodies > [noun] > deviation
inequality1690
perturbation1798
1690 W. Leybourn Cursus mathematicus f. 758 The second Inequality of the Moon is explained by a little Circle.
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. iii. §22. 427 By any single observation of a Planet..to clear it of its Second Inequality, and find its Distance from the Sun.
1728 H. Pemberton View Sir I. Newton's Philos. 228 Sir Isaac Newton has computed the very quantity of many of the moon's inequalities.
1814 J. Playfair Outl. Nat. Philos. II. ii. iii. 277 Besides these two great inequalities, there are ten others..to which Jupiter is subject.
1833 J. F. W. Herschel Astronomy xi. 347 An irregularity, which is well known to astronomers by the name of the great inequality of Jupiter and Saturn.
1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) I. xi. 262 The annual inequality of the moon depending on the position of the earth in its orbit.
1861 G. F. Chambers Handbk. Descr. Astron. i. vii. 43 The Parallactic Inequality, which arises from the difference in the influence of the Sun's attraction when the Moon traverses that part of its orbit nearest the Sun.
1861 G. F. Chambers Handbk. Descr. Astron. i. vii. 43 The Secular Acceleration..of the Moon's revolution... This inequality was detected by Halley, in 1693.
1867 G. F. Chambers Handbk. Descr. Astron. (new ed.) i. vii. 72 The variation..was the first lunar inequality explained by Sir I. Newton upon the theory of gravitation.
1867 G. F. Chambers Handbk. Descr. Astron. (new ed.) i. vii. 73 Hansen has brought to light, within the last few years, two other inequalities, due, the one directly and the other indirectly, to the influence of Venus.
5. Mathematics.
a. The relation between quantities that are unequal in value or magnitude. sign of inequality, either of the signs > (‘is greater than’) and < (‘is less than’).
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical notation or symbol > [noun] > collection or sequence of > other
vinculum1710
nabla1870
sign of inequality1875
second-mark1888
placeholder1928
tilde1958
1875 I. Todhunter Algebra for Schools (ed. 7) li. §674 If the signs of all the terms of an inequality be changed the sign of inequality must be reversed.
b. An expression of this relation, consisting of two unequal quantities connected by either of these signs: distinguished from equation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > algebra > [noun] > expression > inequality
inequation1855
inequality1875
Minkowski inequality1932
triangle inequality1941
Cauchy–Schwarz inequality1956
ultrametric inequality1967
1875 I. Todhunter Algebra for Schools (ed. 7) li. §674 If the signs of all the terms of an inequality be changed the sign of inequality must be reversed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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