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Brit. /
mju
nti/, U.S. /mjun
di/ Forms: 
. ME inmunite, ME ynmunite, 15 inmunity; Sc. pre-17 inmunite, pre-17 inmunitie.
. lME immynity, lME imunite, lME ymmynnete, lME-15 immunite, 15 immunitee, 15 immunyte, 15 immunytie, 15 immunyty, 15-16 immunitie, 15- immunity, 16 emunity, 16 imunity; Sc. pre-17 emenyte, pre-17 emunite, pre-17 imminitee, pre-17 imminitie, pre-17 immonite, pre-17 immunite, pre-17 immunitie, pre-17 immwnite, pre-17 imunite, pre-17 imunitie, pre-17 imwnite, pre-17 ymunit (transmission error), pre-17 17- immunity. [< Anglo-Norman inmunité, immunitee, Anglo-Norman and Middle French immunité, imunité (French immunité) exemption (from a charge, a duty, legal action, etc.) (1341), right of sanctuary (1367), exemption of the church from secular duties (a1377), privilege (conferred by the sovereign) (a1411) and its etymon classical Latin imm
nit
s exemption from tax or tribute, exemption from duties or obligations, in post-classical Latin also inviolability, sanctity of hallowed ground (from 8th cent. in British sources; from 11th cent. in continental sources), right of sanctuary, asylum (from 12th cent. in British sources), place of sanctuary (from 13th cent. in British sources), benefit of clergy (13th cent. in a British source) < immnis IMMUNE adj. + -ts (see -TY suffix1; compare -ITY suffix). Compare Old Occitan immunitat (early 15th cent.), Catalan immunitat (1325), Spanish inmunidad (1371 as imunidat), Portuguese imunidade (1543 as ymmunidade), Italian immunitá (a1348), and also Dutch immuniteit (1598), German Immunität (a1670), Swedish immunitet (1561).
With forms in initial e- compare Middle French (Liège) emunité and perhaps also E- prefix3.]
1. Chiefly Law and in legal contexts.
a. Exemption from a service, obligation, or duty; freedom from liability to taxation, jurisdiction, etc.; privilege granted to an individual or a corporation conferring exemption from certain taxes, burdens, or duties (in later use esp. from prosecution or arrest). Also: gen. non-liability, privilege. In modern use freq. with from. Cf. FRANCHISE n.
diplomatic, public interest, use immunity: see at the first element.
c1384 Bible (
Wycliffite, E.V.
)
(Douce 369(2)) (1850) 1 Macc. x. 34 Dais of ynmunite [L.
immunitatis], or fraunchise, and of remissioun to alle Jewis that ben in my rewme.
?a1475 (?
a1425) tr. R. Higden
Polychron. (Harl.) (1879) VII. 97 Canutus..grawntenge fre liberte and immunite [
a1387 J. T
REVISA tr. fredome for al askynge] to the towne.
1602 T. NORTH tr. S. Goulart
Lives 64 The Senate..in fauour of his profession, gaue immunitie to all others that from that time foorth did practise Phisicke.
1613 S. PURCHAS Pilgrimage III. xvi. 276 Inriching..the place with name of a Citie, with building and immunitie.
1623 E. C
ONWAY Let. 17 July in H. Ellis
Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. III. 155 His Majesty foresawe an infinite liberty, a perpetuall emunity graunted to the Roman Catholiques.
1641 MILTON Reason Church-govt. 12 A foul injury and derogation..of that birth-right and immunity which Christ hath purchas'd for us with his blood.
1720 D. MANLEY Power of Love I. 43 Another time he thought to bestow an immense Treasure and Immunity upon the Bandity that infested the Woods in the Forest of Arles.
1785 W. COWPER Task V. 211 A clear escape from tyrannizing lust, And full immunity from penal woe.
1827 H. HALLAM Constit. Hist. Eng I. v. 262 The English subject continued to pride himself in his immunity from taxation without consent of parliament.
1866 Times 29 Jan. 8/4 Those concerned in transactions of this kind have certainly no claim to immunity from prosecution.
1897 F. W. MAITLAND Domesday Bk. & Beyond ii. 270 In an ordinary case the clause of immunity will first contain some general words declaring the land to be free of burdens in general, and then some exceptive words declaring that it is not to be free from certain specified burdens.
1910 W. W. W
ILLOUGHBY Constit. Law of U.S. I. §184. 439 By an act of Congress in 1902, the immunity from double jeopardy for crime as provided in the Constitution had been extended to the Philippines.
1951 L. L. L
EONARD Internat. Organization I. vi. 110 The Secretary-General may waive immunity of any officials, and the Security Council may waive the immunity of the Secretary-General.
1991 K. H
AFNER & J. M
ARKOFF Cyberpunk I. 52 Susan asked for immunity from prosecution in exchange for doing her civic duty and testifying against Kevin and Roscoe.
b. A particular exemption or privilege. Usu. in pl.
a1449 in S. A. Moore
Lett. & Papers J. Shillingford (1871)
II. 77 The citeseyns..were seised of suche a view yn the same cite to be holde and of ij coroners of them self yn and of the same cite w
t many and other divers custumys libertees jurisdiccions ymmynnetees and franchises.
1450 in
Archaeologia (1900)
57 76 If any such acte shude be made, hit were clere contrairie to the libertees, fredoms, & immynities & franchises of the seide comitee [of Chester].
a1538 T. STARKEY Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 100 Certayn pryvylegys & prerogatyf..as..he schold not be constraynyd to go forth to warre..wyth such other lyke immunytes & pryvylegys.
1571 Act 13 Eliz. c. 29 §5 All manner of Liberties Fraunchises Immunyties..geven or graunted to the said Chauncellor Maisters and Schollers of either of the said Universities.
1612 in R. Renwick
Extracts Rec. Stirling (1887) I. 131 The maltmen..may..posses thair wounted liberteis, privilages and immuniteis.
1643 W. PRYNNE Soveraigne Power Parl. III. 93 This enoyling..derives no personall Prerogatives or Immunities at all to kings.
1690 J. CHILD Disc. Trade iii. 87 Merchandizing..the purchasing of an Immunity or Monopoly to the prejudice of our Country.
1701 D. HUME Diary Proc. Parl. Pr. Council Scotl. (1828) 56 A motion, by way of Act, in favours of the Company prorogating their temporary privileges and immunities for the space of 9 years, to ly on the table.
1759 W. ROBERTSON Hist. Scotl. I.
I 16 Civil privileges and immunities were the consequence of their victories.
1798 H. M. WILLIAMS Tour Switzerland I. xv. 207 To grant special immunities to various cities and districts.
1828 SCOTT Fair Maid of Perth vii, in
Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 177 He is the Provost of Perth, and..must see the freedoms and immunities of the burgh preserved.
1854 N.Y. Daily Times 24 Mar. 4/4 The immunities of a public minister do not protect such of their attendants as are debtors, as to debts incurred before their entering the minister's service.
1887 Westm. Rev. June 327 The immunities..conceded to the members of that monopolist corporation.
1934 Contrib. Canad. Econ. 7 26 The first charter for Carolina, granting the rights, jurisdictions, and immunities of the Palatine of Durham.
1972 Lat. Amer. (Nexis) 17 Mar. 84 The draft security law..enabling the President to declare a ‘state of internal war’, increasing the powers and immunities of the security forces.
1990 D. K
AVANAGH Thatcherism & Brit. Polit. (ed. 2) Introd. i. 13 Removal of some immunities which unions had long enjoyed under common law.
2. spec. The exemption of ecclesiastical persons and things from secular or civil liabilities, burdens, or duties. Also: an instance of this. Now chiefly hist.
Ecclesiastical immunities include the exemption of the clergy from lay jurisdiction, or of church property from secular taxation, and the freedom of sanctuary from invasion.
1449 Rolls of Parl. (2005) V. 153/2 He woll
at is bille..be committed to the archiebisshoppes and bisshoppes..be cause it touchith the immunite and liberte of the chirch.
1469 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1814) II. 94/2 That the fredome of haly kirk be obseruit..in all ymunit [
sic], preulege and fredome.
a1535 T. MORE Hist. Richard III in
Wks. (1557) 46/1 Godde forbydde that anye manne shoulde..breake the immunitee, and libertye of that sacred Sainctuary.
1570 J. FOXE Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 143/1 Men of the Clergie..he indued with speciall priuilegies and immunites.
1609 J. SKENE tr.
Statutes f 49, in
Regiam Majestatem, How oft ane manslayer takes him self to the immunitie of the kirk.
1610 G. CARLETON Iurisdict. 161 These immunities which Emperours and Princes haue giuen to the Church, the Church ought to inioy without disturbance, and to withdraw such immunities, were high sacriledge and impiety.
1660 BP. J. TAYLOR Ductor Dubitantium II.
III. iii. 11 This immunity and intemeration of holy things as well as holy persons.
1711 London Gaz. No. 4831/2, The Congregation of Immunities have..had under their Consideration the Affairs of Naples, where the Viceroy has caused several Criminals of State to be taken forcibly out of the Churches, whither they had fled for Sanctuary.
1738 R. S
EAGRAVE Observ. Conduct Clergy 18 To question Constantine's patrimony, or the rights, and immunities of Holy Church is execrable heresy!
1776 W. J. MICKLE tr. L. de Camoens
Lusiad IV. 168 (
note) The clergy had the singular honesty to desert what was stiled the church immunities.
1821 Edinb. Advertiser 24 Apr. 260/4 Lord Ashburton, in looking at the immunities enjoyed by Protestant Dissenters, found it difficult to perceive why similar advantages should be denied to..Catholics.
1838 W. H. PRESCOTT Hist. Reign Ferdinand & Isabella II.
I. xii. 80 Even ecclesiastical immunities, which proved so effectual a protection in most countries at this period, were not permitted to screen the offender.
1883 J. A. FROUDE Short Stud. IV.
I. iii. 34 The question of the immunities of the clergy had been publicly raised.
1902 E. WHARTON Valley of Decision I.
II. 274 The dreadful fate of Ganganelli has checked bolder sovereigns than his Highness in their attempts on the immunities of the Church.
1969 N.Y. Times 11 July 9/2 Privileges and immunities of the priesthood and its separate style of dress and life began only after the fifth century.
1991 Renaissance Stud. 5 367 The chaplains of five Benedictine and Augustinian nunneries did participate in meetings of the secular clergy,..but the Franciscans, Dominicans, Vallombrosans and other religious orders enjoying special fiscal immunities, did not.
3. Freedom from ordinary restraints; undue liberty, licence. Also: an instance of this. Obs.
1549 H. LATIMER 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 6th Serm. sig. Tiii
v, There is sum place in London, as they saye,
immunitie, impunitie. What should I call it? a preueledged place for whoredome.
1583 P. STUBBES Anat. Abuses sig. Lvii, The arguments of tragedies, is anger, wrath, immunitie, crueltie, iniurie, incest, murther.
1639 P. MASSINGER Unnaturall Combat IV. ii. sig. I
v, To pay your debts, and take your lechery..With all your other choyce immunities.
a1680 S. BUTLER Genuine Remains (1759) I. 126 And he..Is sentenc'd and deliver'd up To Satan..For vent'ring wickedly to put a Stop To his Immunities and free Affairs.
4. Freedom or exemption (from any natural or usual liability); protection (from or against anything evil or injurious); an instance of this. Also occas. with to.
In later use perh. influenced by sense 5.
?1567 Def. Priestes Mariages (new ed.) Pref. sig. Bi
v, Be..mercifull, in punishyng your owne transgressions, in our bodies and persones,..though your bodies and persones enioye your immunitie, from all suche afflictions.
1592 tr. F. Junius
Apocalypsis (Rev. xxii. 1) 85 Freedome and immunitie from all euill.
1628 F. HUBERT Deplorable Life Edward II (unauthorized ed.) 65 It rather craues immunity and rest.
1640 E. REYNOLDS Treat. Passions xxvi. 269 Another cause of Boldnesse, is Immunity from Danger, or at least a Versatilousnesse and Dexterity of wit to evade it.
1677 M. HALE Contempl. II. 162, I have no cause to hope for an Immunity from Trouble, so long as I have no Immunity from Sin.
1723 J. BARKER Patch-work Screen for Ladies 24 From varying modes, which oft our mindes inslave, Lo! here, a full immunity we have.
1757 E. BURKE Philos. Enq. Sublime & Beautiful I. §15. 27 Nor is it either in real or fictitious distresses, our immunity from them which produces our delight.
1789 J. BENTHAM Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. x. p. xcviii, Now, pleasure is
in itself a good: nay, even setting aside immunity from pain, the only good.
1832 S. H
IBBERT Hist. Extinct Volcanos xiv. 102 To these convulsions succeeded a long interval of complete, or nearly complete, immunity from volcanic eruptions.
1854 C. BRONTË Let. in E. C. Gaskell
Life C. Brontë (1857) II. xiii. 320 It is long since I have known such comparative immunity from headache.
1894 J. T. FOWLER in St. Adamnan
Vita S. Columbae Introd. 32 Ireland has enjoyed an immunity from snakes.
1938 Amer. Home June 32/2 The wearable surface and particular immunity to stain of the new metals..make them invaluable kitchen materials.
1954 N.Y. Times Mag. 13 June 54 Give the youngsters some kind of immunity against the slums and social injustices.
1991 T. P
AKENHAM Scramble for Afr. (1992) xxvii. 502 The insurrection was spread by spirit mediums, who promised the Shona immunity from white bullets.
5. Med. The state of being insusceptible or resistant to a noxious agent or process, esp. a pathogen or infectious disease, which may occur naturally or be produced by prior exposure or immunization; a state of rapid and strong responsiveness to a specific antigen produced by exposure to it. Also more generally: normal or adequate resistance to disease. Freq. with from. Cf. IMMUNE adj. 3a.
Immunity may be natural or innate (as that exhibited by a particular organism to a pathogen for which it is not a natural host) or acquired (active or passive). Active immunity results from an organism's own immune response to a pathogen or antigen; passive immunity results from the transfer of antibodies from another individual. Humoral immunity is that associated with the presence of specific antibodies; cell-mediated (also cellular) immunity is that associated with the activity of T lymphocytes and macrophages (see these terms at the first element).
[
1603 P. HOLLAND tr. Plutarch
Morals 1116 What be those then, good Colotes, who are accompanied with this immunity, that they can neither be hurt nor diseased?]
a1650 G. BOATE Irelands Nat. Hist. (1652) xxiii. 179 The immunity from certain diseases consisteth in the air, not in the bodies of the people.
1689 W. SALMON tr. Y. van Diemerbroeck
Treat. Small-pox & Measles ii. 3/2 in
Anat. Human Bodies, The small pox... Old age challenges a greater immunity from them, then other ages.
1753 W. H
IRD Remarks Pestilence & Pestilential Dis. 42 We have it in our power to preserve the body in a degree of immunity from disease, or at least, of dislodging its cause.
1782 W. STEVENSON Candid Animadversions 92 A man may live a life of luxurious indolence and intemperence, with immunity from disease.
1818 New-Eng. Jrnl. Med. & Surg. 7 249 A very slight variation, is sufficient to destroy immunity in those whose organs are become exquisitely sensible of variation from immutable uniformity of meteorological succession.
1866 Lancet 30 June 718/2 Now it has been found that after continued inoculation the body will enter into a state of immunity from further inoculation with syphilitic matter.
1892 Pop. Sci. Monthly Sept. 629 Acquired immunity depends upon the formation of an antitoxine in the body of the immune animal.
1925 H. L. MENCKEN Let. 1 Apr. in H. L. Mencken & S. Haardt
Mencken & Sara (1987) 202 The main business is to raise your immunity, and the way to do it is to keep your nourishment high.
1953 R. W. F
AIRBROTHER Text-bk. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) xvii. 217 Little immunity appears to result from an actual attack of
gonorrh
a, second infection being common.
1997 M. F
ABI Wyrm ii. 44 It's an American louse, so the American labrusca grapes have evolved a certain degree of natural immunity.
2006 Washington Post (Home ed.) 9 June
A7/5 Vaccines are always most effective when there is a ‘herd immunity’, when enough people are immunized that the pathogen gradually disappears.
6 W. E. Hearn's name for: the household as a discrete, self-contained entity in early Indo-European society. Obs. nonce-use.
1879 W. E. HEARN Aryan Househ. x. 232 Outside this association there..was the Household, considered as a corporate body, without any relation to other Households... This independent position of the Household may be called Immunity, as opposed to the Community.
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