[ad. rare L. tenācitās, f. tenāx, tenāci- tenacious: see -ACITY. So F. tenacité (14th c. in Godef., Compl.).] The quality or property of being tenacious.
1. Cohesiveness, toughness; viscosity, clamminess (of a liquid); also, adhesive quality, stickiness.
1555. Eden, Decades, 145. A certeyne … iuise, whose substaunce is of suche tenacitie and clamminesse, that it wyll neuer weare awaye.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., ii. 41. Water, to which Sope has given a Tenacity.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 3. For the same reason … many light Substances have such strong Cohesions or Tenacities.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 261. By tenacity is understood … the different degrees of cohesion of the particles of minerals.
1856. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxi. 538. No doubt the bigness of the [plough-] shoe varied … with the lightness or tenacity of the soil.
2. The quality of retaining what is held, physically or mentally; firmness of hold or attachment; firmness of purpose, persistence, obstinacy.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 175. Some whose tenacite & hardnes is reproued in this peticyon.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., II. § 5. The tenacity of Prejudice and Prescription.
1794. Paley, Evid., I. i. (1817), 21. They clung to this hope … with more tenacity as their dangers or calamities increased.
1823. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1824), 492. They … began tugging him towards the door, he … clinging to every hold he made with astonishing tenacity.
1830. J. W. Croker, in C. Papers, 14 May. That tenacity of life which his family have constitutionally.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., I. iv. 552. The tenacity of the English bull-dog.
b. Retentiveness (of memory).
1814. Scott, Wav., iii. A memory of uncommon tenacity.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, I. 93. What animal when it has learned anything can retain the lesson with equal tenacity?
† 3. Tendency to keep fast hold of money; miserliness, niggardliness, parsimony. Obs.
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary, I. (1625), 32. Vnbridled lust, couetous tenacitie, prodigality, or detestable excesse.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxix. 173. The passage of mony to the publique Treasure obstructed, by the tenacity of the people.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Tenacity, fast-keeping, sure holding, niggardlinesse, misery.
1706. in Phillips.
