Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- lack of ability, qualification, or strength; incapability.
- Law. lack of the legal power to act in a specified way or ways.
noun plural -ties
- lack of power, strength, or capacity; inability
- law
- legal disqualification or ineligibility
- a circumstance causing this
1610s, from French incapacité (16c.), from Medieval Latin incapacitatem (nominative incapacitas), from Late Latin incapax (genitive incapacis) “incapable,” from in- “not” (see in- (1)) + Latin capax “capable,” literally “able to hold much,” from capere “to take” (see capable). Often used 17c. as a legal term referring to inability to take, receive, or deal with in some way.