circuity

English

Etymology

From circuit +‎ -y.

Noun

circuity (countable and uncountable, plural circuities)

1. (countable) A circuitous plan; a roundabout way of doing something.
   • 1827, James Humphreys, Observations on the Actual State of the English Laws of Real Property‎^[1]:

     It may here suffice to add that, compared with the formalities, the fictions, and the circuities of legal assurances, they surprise us with a simplicity and directness of purpose which would satisfy the most zealous advocate for these desirable qualities […]

   • 1830, Francisco Javier Gamboa, Commentaries on the mining ordinances of Spain‎^[2]:

     Upon the establishment of a mint at some intermediate place, these useless and inconvenient circuities would be dispensed with, and the expediency and utility of supplying the internal provinces with money would become apparent […]

   • 1860, Sir Henry Gwillim, A New Abridgment of the Law‎^[3], volume 7, page 138:

     For the only reason why the mortgagee can tack his bond to his mortgage, is to prevent a circuity of suits; it is solely matter of arrangement for that purpose; for the right has no foundation in natural justice.

2. (uncountable) The state or quality of being circuitous.
   • 1986, Yash Aggarwal, Transport Geography of India‎^[4]:

     By adding up all squared values and by dividing the total by the number of vertices we get a number indicating the degree of circuity of the transportation network relative to the given vortex.

   • 2003, Christopher Julius Starforth Hill, Maritime Law, page 379:

     The avoidance of circuity of action is an alternative defence pleaded by the defendants to a salvage action when the wrongdoing ship in a collision and the salving ship which saves the 'innocent' ship are under the same ownership.

   • 2010, Steven Morrison, The Evolution of the Airline Industry‎^[5], page 23:

     And despite the occasional apparent circuity of routing required by the hub-and-spoke system, excess air mileage has increased only about 1 percentage point.

3. (transport, countable) A measure of the ratio of road miles to air miles between two locations.
   • 1956, Traffic World, volume 97, Traffic Service Corporation:

     Total average circuities for the years 1947 and 1950 were estimated as 14 and 13 per cent, respectively, and the overall circuity for the commodity groups in 1947 was 13 per cent for products of agriculture, 8 per cent for animals and products […]

   • 2006, Biomass Energy and Biofuels from Oregon's Forests:

     The circuity factor is the average ratio of road miles to air miles between two points on a landscape.