[f. CENTRAL + -ITY; in mod.F. centralité.]

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  1.  The quality or fact of being central; central nature or position; situation in or at the center or middle. Line of centrality: line (on the earth’s surface) along which an eclipse is central.

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1647.  H. More, Song of Soul, IV. xv. If there be but one centrality Of th’ Universall soul which doth invade All humane shapes.

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1794.  R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 213. The centrality of the sun.

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1879.  Farrar, St. Paul, I. 364. The centrality of its position … made it [Antioch] a great commercial emporium.

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1882.  Athenæum, 2 Dec., 789. The line of centrality is confined to the South Pacific Ocean.

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  b.  fig.

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1691–8.  Norris, Pract. Disc. (1711), III. 129. That Centrality of the Divine Nature, whereby he is fully satisfied in himself.

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1844.  Emerson, Ess., Ser. II. iii. 85. Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset.

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1862.  W. M. Rossetti, in Fraser’s Mag., Aug., 195. Clear grasp of ideas, centrality of purpose.

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  2.  Phys. [so F. centralité.] ‘A term applied to describe the inherent action of the nervous centres as distinct from those of the peripheric nerves; it is used in contradistinction to conductivity’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).

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