different between quality vs incisivity

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

English

Etymology

Formed as incisiv(e) +? -ity.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?ns?s?v??t?, IPA^(key): /?nsa??s?v?t?/

Noun

incisivity (uncountable)

1. The quality of being incisive; penetrating trenchancy; incisiveness.
   • 1967, James F. E. Dennis (editor), The Record Collector: A Magazine for Collectors of Recorded Vocal Art (self-published), volumes 17–18, page 56

     The remarkable tenor qualities of De Muro, especially in the ardent incisivity of his high register, the manly warmth of his tone and his exceptional breathing (Fiato), as well as his uncommon qualities of interpretation, capable of violent dramatic impulse and of lyric inflexion, remain documented in the excerpts he recorded of “Isabeau” in 1912, a testimony, at least auditive, of what was his legendary Folco.

   • 1980, Romanian Review, issues 1–4, page 104

     A true witness of his times and the men that have lived in them, [Al. Rosetti] has sketched with a firm hand unforgettable portraits of an illustrious series of friends, in a ‘White Book[’], and has never disclosed the virulent pages in which he describes human larvae with the incisivity of steel engravings for a possible Black Book.

   • 1982, Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano Istituto Superiore di Pedagogia, Orientamenti Pedagogici (Società Editrice Internazionale), volume 29, page 787

     [T]hey pertain mainly to the anthropological perspective, to the specific language it uses and, last but not least, to a lack of courage and incisivity.

   • 1983, Simion Alterescu (editor), An Abridged History of Romanian Theatre (Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România), pages 59 and 144:

     The humorous writer caught not only the sound of dialogues and words, but also their human substance, the circumstance in which they were uttered, and afterwards, recasting everything, [I. L. Caragiale] produced, out of his inexhaustible retort, highly vivid, authentic types, either moulded with kindness or drawn with incisivity.

     […]

     [T]o promote society by purging it of its vices[: t]o this end [comedy writers] make good use of the incisivity of the satire.

   • 1996, Academia Român?, Revue Roumaine de Psychologie (Editura Academiei), volumes 40–41, page 130

     Their personality features concern: the desire of assuming intellectual risks, perseverance in solving problems, curiosity and incisivity, opening to new experience, working discipline, intolerance to the rules and limits imposed by others, searching for competence, reflexivity, tolerance to ambiguity, intuition, direct and spontaneous interest for work, a wide variety of interests.

   • 2007, Árpád Szakolczai, Sociology, Religion, and Grace: A Quest for the Renaissance, page 295

     Based on a ‘whirling sketch’, now in Lille, it depicts ‘profiles of extraordinary incisivity’ that fully support the circularity of the tondo form, showing a ‘miraculous unity of linear dynamism and plastic solidity’ (Carli 1983: 112).