uniformity

noun

Etymology: From Late Middle English uniformite, uniformitie (“conformity or equality among several parts; similar degree”), borrowed from Old French uniformité (“uniformity”) (modern French uniformité), or from its etymon Late Latin ūniformitās, from Latin ūnifōrmis (“having only one form or shape, uniform”) + -itās (a variant of -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being)). Ūnifōrmis is derived from ūni- (prefix meaning ‘one’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one”)) + -fōrmis (suffix meaning having the form of) (from fōrma (“appearance, form, shape”); further etymology unknown). By surface analysis, uniform + -ity.

1. The quality or state of being uniform.

   “The buildings are all of brick, of a goodly heigth, and an excellent vniformity in moſt of the ſtreets, the toppes riſing vvith battlements.”

   “It remaines, that I collect as vvell as I can, thoſe memorials vvhich I find of this expedition ſcattered in diuers places: a vvorke neceſſarie, for that the greatneſſe of this action vvas ſuch, as ought not to bee omitted in a generall Hiſtorie; yet not eaſie, the conſent of thoſe that haue vvritten thereof, being nothing neare to vniformitie.”

2. The quality or state of being uniform.

   “The uniformity of the decor”

   “Brown was the first livery selected for the company by Brunel nearly 108 years ago, and it continued until October, 1864, when the Directors decided that, to relieve the uniformity, carriages of all classes should be painted white from the waist upwards.”

3. The quality or state of being uniform.
4. The quality or state of being uniform.

   “It must be granted at once, to the advocates of this geological uniformity, that we are not arbitrarily to assume the existence of catastrophes. The degree of uniformity and continuity with which terromotive forces have acted, must be collected, not from any gratuitous hypothesis, but from the facts of the case.”

5. The quality or state of being uniform.

   “Novv, vvhen the father of their Church, vvho gladly vvould heale the ſoare of the daugheer^([sic]) of his people ſoftly and ſleightly, and make the beſt of it, findeth ſo great fault vvith them for their oddes and iarring; vve hope the children haue no great cauſe to vaunt of their vniformitie.”

   “VVhither Mr. [William] Dell is arrived, let his Sermon againſt Reformation, and his Treatiſe againſt Uniformity vvitneſs.”