[f. ABNORMAL + -ITY; cf. formality, etc.] It wants the depreciatory force which generally attaches to ABNORMITY.
1. The quality or state of being abnormal; irregularity of constitution.
1854. Balfour, Outl. Bot., 213. In cases in which the stamens are not equal in number to the petals the abnormality may be traced to suppression of a certain number.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys. (1879), II. x. 459. That remarkable abnormality known as Double Consciousness.
1880. Dr. Richardson, in Fraser’s Mag., Nov., 675. The back, abnormally bent, retains its abnormality.
2. An instance or embodiment of such irregularity; an abnormal or unusual feature or act.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., V. 208/1. Other congenital abnormalities of the pelvic bones are mentioned.
1868. Sat. Rev., 26 Dec., 828/2. The abnormalities of his position would thus be considerably mitigated.
1879. Spencer, Ethics, xi. § 74. 98. Such abnormalities of conduct as are instanced above.
1880. C. & F. Darwin, Movem. Plants, 157. Such abnormalities would probably never … occur with forms developed in a state of nature.
