contrariety

• contrarietie (obsolete)

Borrowed from Middle French contrariété, from Late Latin contrarietas, from contrarius, from Latin contra (“against”). By surface analysis, contrary +‎ -ety.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɒntɹəˈɹʌɪəti/

contrariety (countable and uncountable, plural contrarieties)

1. Opposition or contrariness; cross-purposes, marked contrast.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter XII, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     What differences of sense and reason, what contrarietie of imaginations doth the diversitie of our passions present unto us?

   • 1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […]:

     This contrariety of humours betwixt my father and my uncle, was the source of many a fraternal squabble.

   • 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Expostulation”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 118:

     Thy ſenate is a ſcene of civil jar, / Chaos of contrarieties at vvar, / VVhere ſharp and ſolid, phlegmatic and light, / Diſcordant atoms meet, ferment and fight, […]

   • 1800, James Sedgwick, Remarks, Critical and Miscellaneous, on the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone, page 171:

     The contrariety of views and designs, the concertative, dilatory conferences of a numerous assembly (rent and divided as such assemblies are ever found to be), render it expedient that the prerogative of commencing war be confided to the advised discretion of the executory power.

   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XIII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 192:

     Yet however within my reach, however tempting they may appear, when I think upon the contrarieties, the restraints, the uncertainties that in this sublunary temporary sojourn would interpose their bane, the scene appears joyless, and I fly, rejoicing fly, to rest my hopes, faith, confidence on that base which is immutable, never-changing, never-ending; in a word, I fly to repose myself on the bosom of my God.

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, there was no contrariety between that and the current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.

   • 1998, Walter E. Rex, Diderot's Counterpoints:

     This book puts forward a clearer understanding of Diderot's perplexities by taking into account the dynamics of his thought processes, especially the mode, peculiar to him, of thinking via contrarieties.

   • 2011 September 21, Tim Blanning, “The reinvention of the night”, in Times Literary Supplement:

     At the heart of his argument is the contrariety between day and night, light and dark.

• subcontrariety