availabilityn.
/əˌveɪləˈbɪlᵻti/, U.S. /əˌveɪləˈbɪlᵻdi/ 1. The quality of being available or at one's disposal; ability to be used or obtained; suitability for a purpose or undertaking. Cf. availableness n. 2.
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the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > [noun] > usableness > availability
availability1803
disposability1830
availableness1837
disponibility1862
disposableness1880
1803 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. 1 439/1 It is not in celebrity or triviality, but in availability that he places importance.
1852 N. Hawthorne Blithedale Romance i. 12 ‘You are a young man, sir!’ ‘Does that fact lessen my availability for your purpose?’
1862 R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art 224 The distance and difficulty of access to the minerals are formidable impediments to their availability.
1980 Nature 3 Jan. p. x/1 (advt.) Pelling & Cross Ltd announce the availability of a neat, low-cost, desk-top laminator.
1990 D. DiMaggio & B. Gilbert Real Grass, Real Heroes xii. 165 The hotels were advertising the availability of rooms and suites for rent.
2019 G. Rippon Gendered Brain (2020) iv. 77 The availability of this technology spawned a new discipline.
2. U.S. Politics. The quality in a political candidate of being likely to succeed in gaining office, irrespective of ability, because of political associations, personal popularity, etc. Cf. availableness n. 3, available adj. 5.
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1835 Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.) 28 Dec. 1/3 A good cause seemed to be threatening to crumble away through the imaginary defect of a want of availability in a candidate.
1848 N.Y. Herald May in J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms Availability, not merit or qualifications, is the only requisite to secure a nomination.
1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 158 He was..nominated for his availability,—that is, because he had no history.
1930 Sunday Star (Washington, D.C.) 28 Dec. 2/6 The convention..could not see the availability of the Bay State Senator.
2005 I. Katznelson & B. R. Weingast Preferences & Situations ii. 52 They wore badges indicating support for a particular candidate,..or praised a candidate's availability in interviews with the press.
3. As a count noun: that which is available; an available person or thing.
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the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > [noun] > usableness > availability > that which is
material1624
availability1867
1840 Pennsylvania Inquirer & Daily Courier 22 Feb. In their accounts of assets, the Banks put down only their immediate availabilities—or such availabilities as could be made use of, in the event of immediate resumption.
1867 O. W. Holmes Guardian Angel I. iv. 64 His list of possible availabilities in the matrimonial line.
1971 New Yorker 4 Dec. 183/2 (advt.) We're a small hotel... There are still a few availabilities in late December.
2001 Maritime Reporter & Engin. News Sept. 21/1 The Navy has granted a $54 million, five-year continuous maintenance contract (encompassing 23 availabilities) for work on DDG-51-class ships to Southwest Marine.
4. The state or fact of a person being unoccupied; freedom to undertake or do something.
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1889 Shakespeariana Jan. 49 The manager shall not be debarred from engaging a valuable actor, because he can not feel sure of his availability for every play.
1916 Official Handbk. for Boys (Boy Scouts Amer.) (ed. 15) i. 24 He shall agree to..keep local the local scout authorities of the community in which he lives informed as to his availability for service to the community in case of any emergency.
1958 Times 5 Dec. 13/4 An American writer was rung up and asked whether he would have any availability during the next few months.
2020 Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 28 May g5 She still gets a few calls from clients inquiring about her availability.
5. colloquial. The state of being free or willing to enter into a romantic or sexual relationship; the state of not being involved in a relationship at a given time.
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1976 Negro Amer. Lit. Forum 10 19/1 Kriss..looks back in her early-morning reveries to a private trail of pain—to a girlhood abortion, her lost homosexual Mississippian husband, her demeaning availability to his many successors.
1993 A. Brookner Family Romance (1994) viii. 184 Although married, they..advertised their availability in a way which bordered on the burlesque.
2001 Weekend Austral. (Nexis) 7 July r28 The roar of a thousand male frogs, randily announcing their availability to all female frogs within a 10km radius.
Compounds
availability bias n. (a) a research bias that arises from the use of information and data which is most readily available, rather than that which is most representative of a whole group, class, or phenomenon; (b) Psychology a tendency to judge the probability of an event occurring by the number of instances of it that can readily be brought to mind (often influenced by recent media reporting of such an event); = availability heuristic n.
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1952 Amer. Anthropologist 54 38 Experts on sampling theory will contend that the selection of respondents..results in an ‘availability bias’... Navaho are such mobile people..that most of them..are not often available for interview.
1973 D. Kahneman & A. Tversky in Cognitive Psych. 5 207 The phenomenon of illusory correlation is explained as an availability bias.
1991 Arctic 44 276/2 There are two categories of missed animals [sc. polar bears] in aerial surveys:..[the second is] those that are not available to observers because they are totally concealed by various obstacles (availability bias).
2021 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 29 Jan. a8 We overestimate the likelihood of things that make a splash in the news, such as kidnappings and terrorist attacks—the so-called availability bias.
availability cascade n. Psychology a process whereby a belief or idea (esp. one which is a cause of anxiety), is passed on and amplified through news reports, social media, etc.,causing it to be increasingly accepted as likely or true.
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1997 C. R. Sunstein in Univ. Chicago Law Rev. 64 1188 People tend to think that risks are more serious when an incident is readily called to mind or ‘available’... ‘Availability cascades’ can produce a large demand for law.
1999 T. Kuran & C. R. Sunstein in Stanford Law Rev. 51 683 Availability entrepreneurs—activists who manipulate the content of public discourse—strive to trigger availability cascades likely to advance their agendas.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 1 Jan. d4/2 The availability cascade is a self-perpetuating process: the more attention a danger gets, the more worried people become, leading to more news coverage and more fear.
2020 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 21 May 15 [The corporation's] critics accuse it of being anti-independence and the result is what psychologists call an availability cascade: a belief that grows because of the number of people saying it.
availability heuristic n. Psychology a cognitive process whereby the probability of an event occurring is judged by the number of instances of it that can readily be brought to mind (often influenced by recent media reporting of such an event), resulting in an overestimate of its frequency or likelihood.The term is used to explain the widespread fear of relatively rare events, such as air crashes and shark attacks, compared to (statistically far more common) occurrences such as car accidents or drowning; also called availability bias (see availability bias n. (b)).
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1972 D. Kahneman & A. Tversky in Cognitive Pscyh. 3 452 The availability heuristic is more likely to be employed when events are more naturally thought of in terms of specific occurrences.
1999 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 15 Nov. (Opinion section) 9 It is normal for people to think that some well-publicized behavior is common when it is in fact rare. This way of thinking is so normal that social psychologists have given it a name: ‘the availability heuristic’.
2015 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 5 Mar. 23/4 This is the ‘availability heuristic’, or mental shortcut, whereby the graphic pictures of the last storm outweigh any statistical analysis of the likelihood of another and produce a disproportionate response.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2022).
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n.1803