English

Noun

absurdity ‎(countable and uncountable, plural absurdities)

1. (obsolete, rare) Dissonance. [Attested from around 1350 to 1470 until the late 17^th century.]^[3]
2. (countable) That which is absurd; an absurd action; a logical contradiction. [First attested in the late 15^th century.]^[3]
   • (Can we date this quote?), Johnson, (Please provide the title of the work):

     His travels were full of absurdities.

3. (uncountable) The quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment. [First attested in the early 16^th century.]^[3]
   • (Can we date this quote?), John Locke, (Please provide the title of the work):

     The absurdity of the actual idea of an infinite number.

   • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page viii

     Neither [Jones] […] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority."

Translations

References

1. ↑ Laurence Urdang (editor), The Random House College Dictionary (Random House, 1984 [1975], ISBN 0-394-43600-8), page 7
2. ↑ Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], ISBN 0-87779-101-5), page 8
3. 1 2 3 4 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 10