familiarity

noun

Etymology: From Middle French familiarité, from Latin familiāritātem. Displaced native Old English hīwcūþnes. Morphologically familiar + -ity.

1. The state of being extremely friendly; intimacy.

   “It is also folly and injustice to deprive children[…]of their fathers familiaritie, and ever to shew them a surly, austere, grim, and disdainefull countenance, hoping thereby to keepe them in awfull feare and duteous obedience.”

   “Do not keep familiarity with any but those, with whom you may improve your time.”

2. Undue intimacy; inappropriate informality, impertinence.

   “Murrel did not in the least object to being called a monkey, yet he always felt a slight distaste when Julian Archer called him one.[…]It had to do with a fine shade between familiarity and intimacy which men like Murrel are never ready to disregard, however ready they may be to black their faces.”

3. An instance of familiar behaviour.

   “The gaunt men carried swords and daggers with a new familiarity, and even the women had poniards belted at their waists.”

4. Close or habitual acquaintance with someone or something; understanding or recognition acquired from experience.

   “The objects around have been seen so often, that they have at last become, as it were, unseen; their familiarity does not carry us out of ourselves, for all their associations are our own.”