precarity

noun

pre·​car·​i·​ty pri-ˈker-ə-tē 

: the state or condition of being precarious : precariousness

The older brother—Dave—raises the younger one, a responsibility that gives him a perpetual sense of life's urgency and precarity.

—Paul Elie

Job precarity can add to a number of social and economic challenges facing millennials including rising personal debts, growing costs of living, shrinking access to pensions and lower retirement savings.

—Arif Jetha

Examples of precarity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But an injury could also prompt wonder at the miracle and the precarity of sinew and bone. —Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024

Bloomberg reports that the new debt is giving investors a 13% interest rate, a reflection of the precarity of Hertz’s fortunes. —Melvin Backman, Quartz, 20 June 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron’s call earlier this month for snap parliamentary elections thrust the EU’s second-largest economy into a state of political precarity. —Sydney Lake, Fortune, 18 June 2024

Still, the precarity of family ties informally listed in such a document makes clear what worlds these Union soldiers like Edward Peticolas were plunging themselves into—worlds that cared little for the family ties of people listed as chattel. —Susanna Ashton, JSTOR Daily, 23 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from French précarité, from précaire "granted or exercised only with the permission of another, insecure, uncertain" (going back to Middle French, borrowed from Latin precārius "given as a favor, uncertain, precarious") + -ité -ity

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined above