[ad. L. *cadentia: see -ENCY. In earlier use not distinguished from cadence; the sense of quality more proper to -ENCY comes out only in sense 3.]
† 1. A falling out, happening, hap; = CADENCE 8.
1647. Sprigg, Angl. Rediv., I. xi. (1854), 10. How delightfully remarkable is it (as a most apt cadency of Providence).
2. = CADENCE 1; cadent quality.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, I. lxx. Wks. (1677), 106. ’Tis [Poetry] but a Play, which makes Words dance, in the evenness of a Cadency.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 48. The old Italian tunes and rithmes both in conceipt and cadency, have much affinity with the Welsh.
1719. Swift, To Yng. Clergyman, Wks. 1755, II. II. 6. Rounded into periods and cadencies.
3. Descent of a younger branch from the main line of a family; the state of a cadet.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Cadency, in heraldry, the state, or quality of a cadet.
1858. R. Chambers, Dom. Ann. Scotl., I. 211. Not … a male descendant … in existence, of cadency later than the fifteenth century. Ibid. (1866), Ess. Fam. & Hum., Ser. I. 18. He is recognised by a title of cadency from his wife, as Mrs. Thompson’s husband.
1885. S. Salter, in N. & Q., VI. XII. 514/2. It might be thought that the label was for cadency of birth; but it was not so.
b. Mark of cadency (Her.): a variation in the same coat of arms intended to show the descent of a younger branch from the main stock.
1702. A. Nisbet (title), An Essay on additional Figures and Marks of Cadency.
1830. T. Robson, Hist. Heraldry, L j/2. These marks of cadency … have crept into the general blazon of many coats of arms.
1882. W. A. Wells, in N. & Q., 25 March, 231. James … would in vita patris have borne as his mark of cadency the original crescent charged with a label.
