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variety

noun
/vəˈɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/UK/vəˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/US

Etymology

From Middle French varieté (“variety”) (modern French variété (“variety; genre, type”)) or directly from its etymon Latin varietās (“difference; diversity, variety”) + English -ty (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives); by surface analysis, various + -ety. Varietās is derived from varius (“different, diverse, various; variegated”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to abandon; to give out; to leave”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being). The English word displaced the native Old English mislīcnes. Sense 1.3.2 (“total number of distinct states of a system; logarithm to the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system”) was coined by the English psychiatrist William Ross Ashby (1903–1972) in his work An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956). Cognates * Galician variedade (“variety”) * Italian varietà (“difference; variety”) * Portuguese variedade (“variety”) * Spanish variedad (“breed; variety”)

  1. derived from *h₁weh₂-✻ — “to abandon; to give out; to leave”
  2. derived from varietās — “difference; diversity, variety”
  3. derived from varieté — “variety”

Definitions

  1. A deviation or difference.

  2. A specific variation of something.

    • The ſpirit of that competition burns / With all varieties of ill by turns, / Each vainly magnifies his own ſucceſs, / Reſents his fellows, wiſhes it were leſs, […]
    • Yet the task of composing dramatic varieties, of training players, and deliberating in the theatrical senate, or even of expressing philosophically his opinions on these points, could not wholly occupy such a mind as his.
    • In some respects he [Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon] was well fitted for his great place. […] No man was better acquainted with general maxims of statecraft. No man observed the varieties of character with a more discriminating eye.

  3. A collection or number of different things.

    • But nether in this maner, nor any other particular procedyng, can we ſufficiently direct yow: but, notyng unto yow the generalitees of our deſyre, referr yow to apply your doings to the varieté and occurrency of thyngs there.
    • In other parts of the ſea are ſeen ſponges of various magnitude, and extraordinary appearances, aſſuming a variety of phantaſtic forms like large muſhrooms, mitres, fonts, and flovver-pots.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Ellipsis of variety performance or variety show (“a type of entertainment featuring a…

      Ellipsis of variety performance or variety show (“a type of entertainment featuring a succession of short, unrelated performances by various artistes such as (depending on the medium) acrobats, comedians, dancers, magicians, singers, etc.”).

    2. The quality of being varied

      The quality of being varied; diversity.

      • Variety is the spice of life.
      • Nor is our body made of one parte onely, but of manye and diuerſe. […] The diuers placyng and vſe is not to the member reprochful, but this varietie rather apertayneth to the welth of the whole body.
      • Age cannot vvither her, nor cuſtome ſtale / Her infinite variety: […]

    3. The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows

      The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows; also, the production of, or performance in, variety performances or shows.

The neighborhood

Derived

Abelian variety, affine variety, algebraic variety, antivariety, cinevariety, common or garden variety, equational variety, garden variety, grape variety, Kummer variety, nonstandard variety, projective variety, quasiprojective variety, quasivariety, standard variety, supersingular variety, T-variety, type variety, varietal, varietist, variety is the spice of life, variety meat, variety of algebras, variety shop, variety show, variety store, variety theater, vernacular variety, Veronese variety

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for variety. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA