English

Noun

persistency ‎(countable and uncountable, plural persistencies)

1. (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being persistent.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 2, act 2, scene 2:

     Prince Henry: By this hand thou thinkest me as far in the devil's book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and persistency.

   • 1881, Thomas Hardy. A Laodicean, chapter 5:

     On entering her room he had been struck by the absence of that saucy independence usually apparent in her bearing towards him, notwithstanding the persistency with which he had hovered near her for the previous month.

   • 1913, Gilbert Murray, Euripides and His Age, Chapter II:

     However that may be, the hostility of the comic writers had evidently a general hostility behind it. Our tradition states this definitely and the persistency of the attacks proves it.

   • 2008 March 29, Ed Pilkington, "The white house losers," The Guardian (UK) (retrieved 6 July 2014):

     "I'm not into mood changes," he says. "These ups and downs undermine consistency and persistency of purpose."

2. (countable) A measure of how much something persists.
   • 1998 March 28, John Chapman, "Pensions Investigated," The Independent (UK) (retrieved 6 July 2014):

     The table shows that three-year "persistencies" range from 89.6 per cent with Standard Life (this means only 10 per cent of plans have lapsed after three years) to 58.9 per cent with Sun Life (almost 40 per cent of plans lapse after three years).

Usage notes

• Less commonly used than the variant form, persistence.

Synonyms

• persistence

Translations