expediency
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English
[edit]Etymology
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Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]expediency (countable and uncountable, plural expediencies)
- (uncountable) The quality of being fit or suitable to effect some desired end or the purpose intended; suitability for particular circumstance or situation.
- Synonym: expedience
- 1810, Thomas Cogan, An Ethical Treatise on the Passions and Affections of the Mind, page 137:
- Imperfet governments […] may palliate crimes upon the plea of necessity or expediency; divine wisdom discovers no expediency in vice; […]
- 1828, Richard Whately, Elements of Rhetoric, part II, p. 214:
- Much declamation may be heard in the present day against “expediency”, as if it were not the proper object of a Deliberative Assembly, and as if it were only pursued by the unprincipled.
- (uncountable) Pursuit of the course of action that brings the desired effect even if it is unjust or unprincipled.
- Synonym: convenience
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 258:
- Utterly neglectful of what he owes to the kingdom which he hopes to regain, Charles has learned but adversity's worst lesson—expediency.
- 2021 July 16, Ben Quinn, “England’s Covid unlocking is threat to world, say 1,200 scientists”, in The Guardian[1]:
- Others warned the British government’s approach would be imitated, for political expediency, by authorities elsewhere.
- (obsolete) Haste; dispatch.
- Synonym: expedience
- (countable) An expedient.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]quality of being fit or suitable to effect some desired end
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References
[edit]- OED2
- expediency in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- “expediency”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “expediency”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “expediency”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped-
- English 5-syllable words
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- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
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