acrasy

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin acrasia (“lack of temperance”), and from its etymon Ancient Greek ᾰ̓κρᾱσῐ́ᾱ (ăkrāsĭ́ā, “bad mixture”) (see further at acrasia) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting conditions, qualities, or states).[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

acrasy (countable and uncountable, plural acrasies)

  1. (archaic, uncountable) Synonym of acrasia (“lack of self-control; intemperance, excess; also, irregular or unruly behaviour”); (countable) an instance of this.
    • a. 1658, Anthony Farindon, a sermon
      Deſpair may have its original not onely from the acraſie and diſcompoſedneſs of the outward man […]
    • 1847, The Reasoner, volume 2, page 254:
      There will be hesitancy in what is said, and irregularity in what is done, but it will be but the acrasy of youth or of genius,―the spirit and purpose of progress will be there, and we can cheerfully wait its time.

References

  1. ^ “acrasy, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “acrasy, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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