Dictionary

repugnancy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɹɪˈpʌɡnənsi/

Etymology

From Middle English repugnancie, from Latin repugnantia. By surface analysis, repugnant + -cy. Doublet of repugnance.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The quality of being repugnant: offensiveness, repulsion.
   • […] howsoever nature dictates, that government is necessary for the safety of the society, yet every singular person, by corruption and selfe-love, hath a naturall aversenesse and repugnancie to submit to any; every man would be a King himselfe […] 1644, Samuel Rutherford, Lex, Rex, London: John Field, Quest. VIII, page 49:
   • Even Pennant, with all his repugnancy to the toad, could not be induced to favour the popular belief in its poisonous character. 1893, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, “The Common Toad”, in Our Reptiles and Batrachians, London: W.H. Allen, page 118:
   • If you be carved with any thing […] which you do not like, conceal (as much as in you lieth) your repugnancies, and receive it however: And though your disgust many times is invincible, and it would be insufferable tyranny to require you should eat what your stomach nauseates; yet it will shew your civility to accept it, though you let it lye on your plate, pretending to eat, till you meet with a fit opportunity of changing your plate, without any palpable discovery of your disgust. 1673, Hannah Woolley, “Some choice Observations for a Gentlewomans Behaviour at Table”, in The Gentlewomans Companion, London: Dorman Newman, page 70:
2. (countable, uncountable) The quality of being repugnant: (logical) opposition, contradiction, incompatibility.
   • […] this Notion is the Source from whence do ſpring, all thoſe Amuſing Geometrical Paradoxes, which have ſuch a direct Repugnancy to the plain, common Senſe of Mankind, and are admitted with ſo much Reluctance, into a Mind not yet debauched by Learning: […] 1710, George Berkeley, “Of the Principles of Human Knowledge”, in A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. […], Dublin: […] Aaron Rhames, for Jeremy [i.e., Jeremiah] Pepyat, […], →OCLC, § 123, pages 175–176:
   • For if the paralleles be of this nature, that howe muche the nearer we are th’equinoctiall, so muche the greater is the heate: and howe muche the furder remoued from th’equinoctiall, so muche the colder the qualitie of the aire is: there must seme a manifest repugnancie, betwixt Auicenne, & the Geographers. 1559, William Cuningham, The Cosmographical Glasse, Book 2:
   • The first man, Adam, experienced no kind of repugnancy between the divine justice and the divine mercy. 1773, William Hazlitt, An Essay on the Justice of God, London: J. Johnson, page 16:
3. (archaic, countable, uncountable) Resistance, fighting back.
   • Why do fond men expoſe themſelues to Battell, And not endure all threats? Sleep vpon’t, And let the Foes quietly cut their Throats Without repugnancy? c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 88, column 1:

Forms

Relateds

repugnance