deteriority

English

Etymology

From Latin deterior (“worse”). See deteriorate.

Noun

deteriority (uncountable)

  1. A worse quality or state; inferiority.
    • 1692, John Ray, “The First Question Concerning the World’s Dissolution, Whether there be Any Thing in Nature that may Probably Cause or Argue a Future Dissolution? Three Probable Means Propounded and Discussed.”, in Miscellaneous Discourses Concerning the Dissolution and Changes of the World. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC, section I (The Waters Again Naturally Overflowing and Covering the Earth), page 43:
      And what account can vve give of their holding out for ſome Generations againſt the inconveniencies of the Air, or deteriority of Diet, but the ſtrength and firmneſs of their Conſtitutions?

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “deteriority”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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