Also 7 cœlebacy. [f. L. cælibātus in same sense, f. cælebs, cælib-em unmarried, single: See -ACY 3. (Cælebs, and its noun of state cælibātus, are the only cognate words found in Latin).] The state of living unmarried.
1663. Aron-bimn., 54. St. Paul’s advice for cœlebacy, or single life.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng., ii. The celibacy of priests was introduced into the English System by Dunstan.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. xxiv. 387. Even ill assorted marriages were preferable to cheerless celibacy.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 681. Celibacy may suit an individual, but never a corps.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), II. III. vii. 149–50. With Gregory celibacy was the perfection of human nature.
