aggressivity

English

Etymology

From aggressiv(e) +‎ -ity.

Noun

aggressivity (usually uncountable, plural aggressivities)

1. The quality of being aggressive.

   Synonym: aggressiveness

   • 1891, Hobart Amory Hare, Walter Chrystie, editors, A System of Practical Therapeutics, volumes I (General Therapeutic Considerations—Prescription-Writing—Remedial Measures Other Than Drugs—Preventive Medicine—Diathetic Diseases and Diseases of Nutrition), Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea Brothers & Co., page 372:

     […] to develop the primary elements of intentional personal activity and of objective aggressivity, giving a meaning to every muscular contraction.

   • 1907, The Philippine Journal of Science, page 357:

     In serial inoculations aggressivity increases until the danger arises that the series will cease from some cause not clearly understood. As the aggressivity increases, there is a decrease in the power of the exudate to block hæmolysis.

   • 2001, Brayton Polka, Depth Psychology, Interpretation, and the Bible: An Ontological Essay on Freud, McGill-Queen’s University Press, →ISBN, page 158:

     He does not see that it is the perversion (evasion, denial) of action that is the origin of the aggressivity that he discerns but cannot account for. He never connects his aggressivity with his concept of activity – desire, love, will – which, he knows, is neither masculine nor feminine.

   • 2005, Alexander Lowen, The Voice of the Body: Selected Public Lectures 1962-1982, Bioenergetics Press, →ISBN, page 308:

     Aggression is directly connected with the function of the legs in an adult since our legs move us towards the things we want. If the motility of a person’s legs is decreased, his aggressivity is reduced.

2. (geology) The acidic ability of water (when it contains dissolved carbon dioxide) to dissolve calcium carbonate from rocks.

Derived terms

• passive-aggressivity