Binarity

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The essence of having two distinct yet interconnected categories often reflects contrasting elements
2. The characteristic of having two divergent parts often signifies opposing elements
3. The condition of having two linked components that form a whole

Etymology: "Binarity" is a plain modern formation: the adjective "binary" with the suffix "-ity", which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality or state. "Binary" itself comes from Latin "binarius", meaning "consisting of two", built on "bini", "two at a time" (from the Latin "bīnus", a distributive form of "duo", two). The Latin adjective passed through Late Latin "bīnārius" and reached English in Middle English as "binarie", so the core idea of the word is simply "twoness" or "pairedness". The suffix does most of the work here. "-ity" arrived through Old French "-ite" from Latin "-itās", and it has been attached to English adjectives ever since, so "binarity" describes the condition of being binary, of consisting of two parts or of operating in a pair of states.