pacienty

Pacienty is an uncommon English noun that is not widely recognized in standard dictionaries. In practice, it is most often encountered as a misspelling or variant of related terms such as patience or patiency. When used, pacienty generally refers to the state or quality of being patient, especially the ability to endure delays, difficulties, or suffering without excessive agitation.

Etymology and related terms

The familiar English word patience comes from Latin patientia, through Old French patience. Patiency is a rarer term used in some philosophical and scholarly discussions to denote the capacity to be affected or acted upon, in contrast to agency, which denotes the capacity to act. Pacienty, by comparison, is not established as a standard form and does not have a clear, separate sense in reputable reference works.

Usage and notes

Because pacienty is not standard, modern writing typically substitutes patience for the virtue of bearing hardship and patiency for the philosophical sense of receptivity to influence. If pacienty appears in a text, it is reasonable to consider it a typographical error or an archaic/technical variant of one of the established terms, and to rely on context to determine the intended meaning.

See also

Patience, patiency, endurance, forbearance, tolerance.

Notes on terminology: distinguishing the everyday virtue of patience from philosophical patiency and from any nonstandard spellings helps avoid ambiguity in writing.