Meanings
plural novities · alternative novitee · alternative nouite · alternative nouitee · alternative novite · alternative nouitie · alternative novitie · alternative nouity
- archaiccountableAn innovation; a novelty.
The ‘Jesus freaks’ and other extravagant novities of American religious life.
1972 December 22nd, The Times Literary Supplement, column 5, page 1,5451 more example
1460, “Dublin documents” quoted by John Thomas Gilbert in Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin (1889), volume 1, page 307
- archaicuncountableNovelty; newness.
That unmeaning assumption of eternal novity.
1823 December 28, Charles Lamb, “Amicus Redivivus”, in The London Magazine, column 1, page 6151 more example
With a nouitee or straungnesse full of trifles.
1569, James Sanford [translator], Of the Vanitie and Vncertaintie of Artes and Sciences, 1st edition, translation of original by Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, page 14b
Origin
- Latinnovitās“newness, novelty; rareness, strangeness; newness of rank; reformation”
- Middle Frenchnovité“novelty, change, innovation”
- Middle Englishnovitē“an innovative practice”
- Englishnovity
Inherited from the Middle English novitē (“an innovative practice”), borrowed from Middle French novité (“novelty, change, innovation”), from the Latin novitās (“newness, novelty; rareness, strangeness; newness of rank; reformation”); cognate with the Italian novità, the Portuguese novidade, the Romanian noutate, and the Spanish novedad.
More words from Middle English, Middle French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
novity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/novity
“novity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/novity. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “novity,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/novity.
Source: novity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.