Normalcies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. States of being usual or ordinary in behavior, condition, or circumstances; periods when things return to typical or expected patterns; examples of standard or expected functioning within a system
2. Conditions or situations characterized by typical or expected status; phases reflecting the usual state of affairs; times when operations or behaviors align with common standards or expectations
3. Instances or phases of conformity to customary or habitual states; occasions when things proceed as per usual norms; examples of regular or standard conditions prevailing in various contexts

Etymology: "Normalcies" is the plural of "normalcy," a noun worked out from "normal" with the suffix "-cy." The base word "normal" traces to the Latin "normalis," meaning "according to a carpenter's square," from "norma," a rule or pattern. The suffix "-cy," as in "accuracy" or "democracy," turns an adjective into a noun for a state or quality, so "normalcy" names the condition of being normal. The word's first sense was mathematical rather than social. It described the quality of being perpendicular or conforming to a standard in geometry and related technical work, the sense in which "normal" still applies to a line at right angles to a surface. The everyday meaning of ordinary, expected conditions came later. That everyday sense was popularized in the United States by President Warren G. Harding, whose 1920 campaign promised a "return to normalcy" after the upheavals of the First World War. The phrase became his slogan, and "normalcy" took on the broader meaning of things returning to their usual state that the plural "normalcies" now reflects.

Synonyms: normality, regularity, standardness, ordinariness, typicality

Antonyms: abnormality, irregularity, anomaly, exception, deviation