exceptions (Polish for example), European languages, from French identité to
Russian identichnost, from Dutch identiteit to Estonian identiteet, share in
common the Latin-derived word. Its wide dispersion must be attributed to the
self-declared language of Enlightenment, French. This says nothing about the
word’s present meaning, but it reminds us of its ideological halo.
In medieval Latin whence it was adopted into French, identitas means ‘the same,
sameness, one’. In its entry for ‘identity’, the second edition of the Oxford
English Dictionary (OED) still refers to the explanation given in Charles du
Cange’s 1844 Latin dictionary: ‘any repetitive action’, which, however, no
longer appears in more recent online updates. The OED still highlights
‘sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances’ as the
principal meaning of the word. If anything should forever stay the same, you
might be tempted to think, it is identity. Alas, as the world changes, so does
language. For instance, the OED’s 2005 update lists ‘identity theft’, and future
updates will reflect further additions and subtle metamorphoses. Dictionaries,
therefore, can provide no more than some orientation.
Another approach to identifying the meaning of ‘identity’ is to examine the
words that can be substituted for it in various contexts, for instance,
‘authenticity’, ‘character’, ‘commonality’, ‘distinctiveness’, ‘exclusivity’,
‘individuality’, ‘integrity’, ‘nature’, ‘quality’, ‘subject’, and ‘self’. However, this
Very Short Introduction is not about words, but about why identity is important
in so many different fields.
Many who use the term ‘identity’ do not care to make their intended meaning
explicit. Yet it would not be difficult to parade a couple of dozen definitions of
‘identity’ here. I only refrain from this exercise because such a list would
inevitably invite reproach for ignoring other definitions that undoubtedly exist.
Instead, I trust that at the end of each chapter of this book it will be a little
clearer than at its beginning what ‘identity’ means in the chapter’s title.