[ad. L. frequentia; see prec. and -ENCY.]
† 1. The state or condition of being crowded; also concr. a numerous assembly, concourse, crowd.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 196/1. The king commanded all the … prelats of the church to be called in a great solemn frequencie.
1570–6. Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1826), 201. [To] Pinnendene Heath … expert men of this shire, but of sundrie other Countries also, came in great frequencie, and spent three whole daies in debate of these Bishops controversies.
1601. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc. (1603), 114. Nothing doth better temper the aire of any place than the frequency of inhabitants.
1644. Milton, Jdgm. Bucer (1851), 290. He was for two years chief Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, with greatest frequency and applause of all learned and pious men until his death, 1551.
1723. State of Russia, I. 209. The frequency of People at Moskow was extraordinary on this Occasion.
† 2. The fact of occurring at short distances apart; numerousness. Obs.
1656. B. Harris, trans. Parival’s The History of This Iron Age, 45. The enemies army could not enter, in regard of the frequencie of great rivers.
† 3. The constant use or repetition of (something); frequent practice. Obs.
1615. J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., 69. By this caution therefore did the Noblest Romanes apply themselues to take the patronage of Plebeians; accounting it the most honourable entrance, to exercise their efficacie of birth, by the protection of poore Clients, or otherwise illiterate Citizens: The frequencie of which custome made Nobilitie famous.
1682. Norris, Hierocles, 14. Neither does this precept of honouring an Oath forbid us Perjury only, but also frequency of Swearing.
1688. S. Penton, Guardian’s Instruct., 59. Oblige him to frequency of writing Home: For coming to the University is not like going beyond Sea, where some persons learn to forget their Relations, and would absolutely slight them, were it not for a Bill now and then.
1785. Sarah Fielding, Ophelia, II. xviii. The Frequency of Vice had deadened her Sense of it.
† b. Frequent intercourse, familiarity with (a person); constant attendance at (a place). Obs.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 21. The greatest bane of English Gentlemen abroad, is too much frequency and communication with their own Countrey-men.
1680. Ld. Capel, Sp. Ho. Com., 26 Oct., in Collect. Poems, 179. Who by his frequency at the Palace, had seemed rather one of the Family and Kings Houshold, than a Foreign Embassador.
4. The fact of occurring often or being repeated at short intervals. Of the pulse: Rapidity.
1641. Ld. J. Digby, Sp. Ho. Com., 19 Jan., 20. The frequencie of Parliament is most essentially necessary to the power, the security, the glory of the King.
1696. trans. Du Mont’s Voy. Levant, 226. Earthquakes … there happen’d four in one day, and all of ’em strong and violent enough to strike a Terror into those that are not accustom’d to ’em. Nor does their frequency make ’em less dreadful to the Inhabitants of this place.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 272. Those things which determine the Motion of the Fluids towards the extreme Parts, increase the Strength and Frequency of the Pulse, as violent Exercise, all Cordials, Spices, thin and sharp Wines, Juices of Limon, operate by these Qualities.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., vii. I began, for certain reasons, to be displeased with the frequency of his return.
1836. Hor. Smith, The Tin Trumpet (1876), 271. There is rapidly springing up a holy alliance of nations, not of kings, and a European public opinion, from which the philanthropist may confidently anticipate the controlling of governments, the diminished frequency of wars, the improvement of the human race, and the completion of what a benevolent Providence has designed for the destiny of man.
1883. A. Jessopp, Village Life in Norfolk Six Hundred Years Ago, in 19th Cent., XIII. Feb., 259. The ghastly frequency of the punishment by death tended to make people savage and bloodthirsty.
b. Physics, etc. The rate of recurrence of any regularly repeated event, e.g., a vibration; the number of times that it occurs in a second or other assumed unit of time.
1831. Brewster, Nat. Magic, ix. (1868), 287. The hearing or not hearing of muscial notes at both extremities of the scale seems to depend wholly on the pitch or frequency of vibration constituting the note, and not upon the intensity or loudness of the noise.
1881. Nature, XXIV. 18 Aug., 359/1. If the notes c′ and d″ are sounded together, their frequencies being in the ratio 8 : 9, there will be heard a beat-note whose frequency is relatively 1.
1893. Times, 11 May, 6/1. Alternating currents of high frequency.
1896. W. G. Woollcombe, Pract. Work Physics, III. 69. Count the number of complete vibrations between successive marks on each of the lines and take the average of these numbers for each fork to represent the ratio of their frequencies.
