latitancy
Etymology
From latitant + -cy.
latitancy means the act or state of lying hidden, or lurking. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “latitancy” is a great word
LATITANCY — [Noun] The state or condition of lying hidden; a dormant, lurking presence. From the English adjective 'latitant' (from Latin latitans, present participle of latitare, 'to lie hidden, lurk') + the noun-forming suffix '-cy'. Unlike latency, which denotes a measurable period of dormancy, or secrecy, which implies active, willful concealment, latitancy is the pure, neutral fact of being withheld from sight. It is the fox holding perfectly still in the bracken, the forgotten bulb waiting through the long frost, and the cool mineral scent of a river stone held in a closed palm—the world's quiet, persistent habit of holding something back.
noun
- The act or state of lying hidden, or lurking.“Her latitiancy must commence at some time, when the serpent poured such a flood out of his mouth, such vehemence of false doctrines, as to cause the true doctrines in much to submit thereto, and abscond; which is the woman's fleeing into the wilderness.”
- Dormancy.“It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.”
- The act of withholding information in order to avoid justiciability.“Supposing the fact of latency established, and the fact of latitancy justly inferred from it; still, under existing institutions, there exists a counter-probability by which its probative force in the character of a criminative circumstance is weakened.”