English Dictionary: Humanities | by the DICT Development Group |
2 results for Humanities | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Humanity \Hu*man"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Humanities}. [L. humanitas: cf. F. humanit[82]. See {Human}.] 1. The quality of being human; the peculiar nature of man, by which he is distinguished from other beings. 2. Mankind collectively; the human race. But hearing oftentimes The still, and music humanity. --Wordsworth. It is a debt we owe to humanity. --S. S. Smith. 3. The quality of being humane; the kind feelings, dispositions, and sympathies of man; especially, a disposition to relieve persons or animals in distress, and to treat all creatures with kindness and tenderness. [bd]The common offices of humanity and friendship.[b8] --Locke. 4. Mental cultivation; liberal education; instruction in classical and polite literature. Polished with humanity and the study of witty science. --Holland. 5. pl. (With definite article) The branches of polite or elegant learning; as language, rhetoric, poetry, and the ancient classics; belles-letters. Note: The cultivation of the languages, literature, history, and arch[91]ology of Greece and Rome, were very commonly called liter[91] humaniores, or, in English, the humanities, . . . by way of opposition to the liter[91] divin[91], or divinity. --G. P. Marsh. |