officiality

American  

[uh-fish-ee-al-i-tee] / əˌfɪʃ iˈæl ɪ ti /

noun

1. the quality or state of being recognized as authoritative or authorized.

   The officiality of the document was questioned due to missing signatures.

   Despite lacking officiality, the rumor spread quickly through the office.

2. something that is recognized as authoritative or authorized.

   We'll have to get through a speech and a few other officialities, but then we can talk.

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Etymology

Origin of officiality

First recorded in 1840–45, for the current sense; from Middle French officialité “office of a judge”; equivalent to official ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )

Example Sentences

Suddenly, she admonished herself for appearing so frivolous, walked to the balustrade, and affected a neutral expression of officiality against the lotus pond's lush background.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thou, poor reader, in spite of all this melancholy twaddle, and blotting out of Heaven's sunlight by mountains of horsehair and officiality, hast still a human heart.

From Latter-Day Pamphlets by Carlyle, Thomas

The sergeants of the bailiff of the courts drew up in line on one side, the priests of the officiality on the other.

From Notre-Dame De Paris by Hapgood, Isabel Florence

And yet to quit all aim towards it; to go blindly floundering along, wrapt up in clouds of horsehair, bombazine, and sheepskin officiality, oblivious that there exists such an aim; this is indeed fatal.

From Latter-Day Pamphlets by Carlyle, Thomas

Poor Bailly, how thy serenely beautiful Philosophizing, with its soft moonshiny clearness and thinness, ends in foul thick confusion—of Presidency, Mayorship, diplomatic officiality, rabid Triviality, and the throat of everlasting Darkness!

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. VIII by Various