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Webster 1913 Edition


Familiarity

Fa-milˊiar′i-ty

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Familiarities
(#)
.
[OE.
familarite
, F.
familiarité
fr. L.
faniliaritas
. See
Familiar
.]
1.
The state of being familiar; intimate and frequent converse, or association; unconstrained intercourse; freedom from ceremony and constraint; intimacy;
as, to live in remarkable
familiarity
.
Syn. – Acquaintance; fellowship; affability; intimacy. See
Acquaintance
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Familiarity

FAMILIAR'ITY

, n.
1.
Intimate and frequent converse, or association in company. The gentlemen lived in remarkable familiarity. Hence,
2.
Easiness of conversation; affability; freedom from ceremony.
3.
Intimacy; intimate acquaintance; unconstrained intercourse.

Definition 2024


familiarity

familiarity

English

Noun

familiarity (countable and uncountable, plural familiarities)

  1. The state of being extremely friendly; intimacy.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.8:
      It is also folly and injustice to deprive children [] of their fathers familiaritie, and ever to shew them a surly, austere, grim, and disdainefull countenance, hoping thereby to keepe them in awfull feare and duteous obedience.
  2. Undue intimacy; inappropriate informality, impertinence.
    • 1927, G K Chesterton, The Return of Don Quixote, p.5:
      Murrel did not in the least object to being called a monkey, yet he always felt a slight distaste when Julian Archer called him one. [] It had to do with a fine shade between familiarity and intimacy which men like Murrel are never ready to disregard, however ready they may be to black their faces.
  3. An instance of familiar behaviour.
  4. Close or habitual acquaintance with someone or something; understanding or recognition acquired from experience.

Derived terms

Translations