Also 5 vertualyte. [f. VIRTUAL a. + -ITY, perh. after med.L. *virtualitas. Cf. F. virtualité, It. virtualità, Sp. virtualidad, Pg. virtualidade.]
† 1. a. The possession of force or power. Obs.–1
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 25 b/1. Now we may saye that Jhesus in his ascension was right hye of iiii maners of heyght that is to wyte of place, of remuneracion or reward, of knowleche, and of vertualyte or strengthe.
† b. Something endowed with virtue or power.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. i. 7. This omnipotent Spirit of God … St. Augustine sometimes taketh … for the holy Ghost; sometime for a winde or breath,… or … for a created virtuality.
2. Essential nature or being, apart from external form or embodiment.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VII. ii. 343. In one graine of corne … there lyeth dormant the virtuality of many other, and from thence sometimes proceed an hundred eares.
1689. R. L’Estrange, Brief Hist. Times, II. Pref. The Two Main Pillars of the Old Cause were the Protestation (that was afterwards Emprov’d into a Covenant) and the Virtuality of the Sovereign Power in the Two Houses.
1843. trans. Custine’s Empire of Czar, II. 272. When the church abdicates its liberty, it loses its moral virtuality.
1858. H. Bushnell, Nat. & Supernat., xiii. (1864), 418. The government of the world is waiting on Christianity, and is thus in highest virtuality a supernatural kingdom.
3. A virtual (as opposed to an actual) thing, capacity, etc.; a potentiality.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxxviii. (1870), II. 357. Our inclinations, dispositions, natural habitudes or virtualities.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., IV. i. A Virtuality perfected into an Actuality.
1885. Mrs. H. Ward, trans. Amiel’s Jrnl., II. 263. Is not mind the universal virtuality, the universe latent?
