different between equity vs quality

English

Alternative forms

• æquity (archaic, poetic)
• equitie (archaic)

Etymology

Attested in 14th century; from the 13th century Old French equite, from Latin aequitas (“uniformity; impartiality; fairness”). Doublet of equality.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??k.w?.ti/

Noun

equity (countable and uncountable, plural equities)

1. Fairness, impartiality, or justice as determined in light of "natural law" or "natural right".
2. (law) Various related senses originating with the Court of Chancery in late Medieval England
   1. (law) The power of a court of law having extra-statutory discretion, to decide legal matters and to provide legal relief apart from, though not in violation of, the prevailing legal code; in some cases, a court "sitting in equity" may provide relief to a complainant should the code be found either inapplicable or insufficient to do so.
      • 1800, Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon in Mayor, &c. of Southampton v. Graves (1800), 8 T. R. 592.

        A Court of equity knows its own province.

      • 1851, Edward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards in Birch v. Joy (1851), 3 H. L. C. 598:

        "A Court of equity interposes only according to conscience."

      • 1848-55, Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England, Chapter IX:

        Equity had been gradually shaping itself into a refined science which no human faculties could master without long and intense application.

   2. (law) A right which accrues to a party in a transaction because of the nature of the transaction itself, and which is exercisable upon a change of circumstances or conditions; in other words, an equitable claim.
      • 1999, In Re Fitzgerald, 237 B.R. 252, 261 (Bkrtcy. D.Conn. 1999):

        "...the mortgagor retains ‘equitable title’ or the ‘equity of redemption’….The equity of redemption permits the mortgagor to regain legal title to the mortgaged property upon satisfying the conditions of the mortgage..."

      • 1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law

        The wife's equity does not, according to the adjudged cases, attach, except upon that part of her personal property in action which the husband cannot acquire without the assistance of a court of equity

   3. (law, England) The body of law which was developed in the English Court of Chancery, which Court had extra-statutory discretion, and is now administered alongside the common law of Britain.
3. (finance) Various senses related to net value
   1. (law, finance) Value of property minus liens or other encumbrances.

   2. (business) Ownership, especially in terms of net monetary value of some business.
   3. (accounting) Ownership interest in a company as determined by subtracting liabilities from assets.
   4. (poker) A player's expected share of the pot.
4. (nonstandard) Equality

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “equity”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Old French qualité, from Latin qu?lit?tem, accusative of qu?lit?s, from qu?lis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?o- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ??????? (poiót?s, “quality”), coined by Plato from ????? (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kw?l?ti/
• (UK, obsolete) IPA^(key): /?kwæl?ti/, /?kwæl?t?/
• (US, father-bother merger, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /?kw?l?ti/, [?k?w????i]

Noun

quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)

1. (uncountable) Level of excellence.
   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     He called for China’s cooperation in efforts to improve air quality.

2. (countable) A property or an attribute that differentiates a thing or person.
3. (archaic) High social position. (See also the quality.)

4. (uncountable) The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from bugs and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
5. (thermodynamics) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
6. (emergency medicine, countable) The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.

7. (countable, Britain, journalism) A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.
   • 1998, Bill Coxall, Lynton Robins, Robert Leach, Contemporary British Politics (page 164)

     It is argued that in the last ten years or so, quality broadsheet newspapers have become more like the tabloids. Anthony Sampson has argued that 'the frontier between the qualities and popular papers has virtually disappeared'.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "quality": high, good, excellent, exceptional, great, outstanding, satisfactory, acceptable, sufficient, adequate, poor, low, bad, inferior, dubious, environmental, visual, optical, industrial, total, artistic, educational, physical, musical, chemical, spiritual, intellectual, architectural, mechanical.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Hyponyms

• human quality
• industrial quality

Coordinate terms

• (a property that differentiates): quiddity

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)

1. Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose.

Derived terms

• qualityness

Related terms

• qualia
• qualitative

Translations

References

• Quality (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• quality in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• quality in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• quality at OneLook Dictionary Search