Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Peculiarity of physical or mental constitution; that temperament or vital state which is peculiar to a person; idiosyncrasy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Peculiarity of constitution; that temperament, or state of constitution, which is peculiar to a person; idiosyncrasy.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But no, the rebellious insect constantly made them all (for, it should have been said before, this spider seldom uses the same web more than forty-eight hours) after the same manner, and finally I laid it to a depraved idiocrasy, incident to captivity and poor health.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 106, August, 1866 Various

  • True, the full man wisely gathers, culls, absorbs; but if, engaged disproportionately in that, he slights or overlays the precious idiocrasy and special nativity and intention that he is, the man’s self, the main thing, is a failure, however wide his general cultivation.

    Democratic Vistas: Paras. 60–89. Collect 1892

  • We venture these deductions from the idiocrasy of the African constitution.

    The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman. A Narrative of Real Life. Jermain Wesley 1859

  • The best culture will always be that of the manly and courageous instincts, and loving perceptions, and of self-respect -- aiming to form, over this continent, an idiocrasy of universalism, which, true child of

    Collect ; from Complete Poetry and Collected Prose 1855

  • True, the full man wisely gathers, culls, absorbs; but if, engaged disproportionately in that, he slights or overlays the precious idiocrasy and special nativity and intention that he is, the man's self, the main thing, is a failure, however wide his general cultivation.

    Collect ; from Complete Poetry and Collected Prose 1855

  • True, the full man wisely gathers, culls, absorbs; but if, engaged disproportionately in that, he slights or overlays the precious idiocrasy and special nativity and intention that he is, the man's self, the main thing, is a failure, however wide his general cultivation.

    Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy Walt Whitman 1855

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