Dictionary

precarity en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /pɹɪˈkɛəɹɪti/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /pɹəˈkɛɹɪti/ (General-American)
• (General-American) audio
• [-ɾi] (General-American)

Etymology

From precar(ious) + -ity (suffix forming nouns from adjectives denoting the properties, qualities, or states of the adjectives), probably modelled after French précarité (“precariousness; existence without financial or social security”). Compare New Latin precārietās.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) Synonym of precariousness (“the state of being uncertain or unstable”); (countable) an instance of this.
   • And he recognized then that the crux of his wretchedness had been the fear lest he might not acquit himself of his long indebtedness to Monsieur through yielding him satisfaction in some perfected fruit of his art; of which, in proportion as Monsieur was certain, Gaspard was rendered more miserable through the delay that augmented its precarity. 1910 March, Marian Cox, chapter XIII, in The Crowds and the Veiled Woman, New York, N.Y.; London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, →OCLC, page 263:
   • [I]t would have been simpler to maintain the high level of yields by periodical relocations of village field systems and by bringing fresh ground under the plough than to cultivate permanent agricultural bases, labour-intensive, difficult to maintain and risky because of the various precarities of nature (salinization, flooding …). 1993, Petr Charvát, Ancient Mesopotamia: Humankind’s Long Journey into Civilization (Dissertationes Orientales; 47), Prague, Czech Republic: Oriental Institute, →ISBN, page 154:
   • She looks at him, his round cheeks, his eyelashes, his damp hair. Does the boy sense, already, the precarity of all this? 2021, Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land, London: 4th Estate, HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 622:
2. (specifically, uncountable) The condition of existence without predictability or security, thus affecting material or psychological welfare; (countable) an instance of this.
   • The field of diaspora studies is similarly in process, reflecting and shaping new forms of migration and settlement, emergent forms of belonging and the precarities of ongoing global inequalities, dislocation and violence. 2017 July, Claire Alexander, “Beyond the ‘the “Diaspora” Diaspora’: A Response to Rogers Brubaker”, in Martin Bulmer, John Solomos, editors, Ethnic and Racial Studies, volume 40, number 9, Abingdon, Oxforfdshire: Routledge, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1553:
   • So far, we have learned that jobs can be obscure, but also that tasks or "jobs within jobs" can be obscure or made obscure. A phenomenon that catches a general tendency towards obscurity is what [Guy] Standing calls "uptitling" – to give a job a high-sounding epithet to conceal its precarity and, I would say, its substance. 2014, Roland Paulsen, “How to Succeed at Work without Really Trying”, in Empty Labor: Idleness and Workplace Resistance, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 82:
   • The individual precarity of persons thus provides a psychology for, a sense of plausibility for, a doctrine of collective precarity, thereby justifying a pseudo-unity under the nation state. 1985, Anthony J. Blasi, “Third World Workers and the Religious Anti-structure of Latin American Development”, in A Phenomenological Transformation of the Social Scientific Study of Religion (American University Studies, Series VII, Theology and Religion; 10), New York, N.Y.; Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, →ISBN, part 3 (Religion, Social Processes and Social Problems), page 120:
   • "Precarity," or precariousness, is an essential element in true voluntary poverty, a saintly French Canadian priest from Martinique has written us. […] Precarity enables us better to help the poor. When a community is always building and enlarging and embellishing, which is good in itself, there is nothing left over for the poor. We have no right to do so as long as there are slums and breadlines anywhere. 1963, Dorothy Day, “A Baby is Always Born with a Loaf of Bread under Its Arm”, in Loaves and Fishes, New York, N.Y.; Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, →OCLC, part II (Poverty and Precarity), pages 82–83:

Forms

Deriveds

bioprecarity

Relateds

precarization · precarized · precarious (see) · precariat

Synonyms

insecurity · precariousness

Translations (19)

pt precariedade (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · de Prekarisierung (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · el επισφάλεια (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · de Prekarität (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · ca precarietat (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · pt precariedade (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · de Prekarietät (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · es precariedad (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · cmn （生存狀態的）不穩定性 /（生存状态的）不稳定性 (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · sv otrygghet (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · it precarietà (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · fr précarité (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · fi epävarmuus (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · ro precaritate (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · la precārietās (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · sv prekarisering (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · fi prekaarius (condition of existence without predictability or security; an instance of this) · es precariedad (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness) · gl precariedade (synonym of precariousness (cognates) — see also precariousness)