The quality or state of being elastic or spring-like; elasticity or resilience, particularly in biological structures.
From 'elater' plus the abstract noun suffix '-y' (also '-ery'), creating a noun describing the property or quality of having spring-like characteristics, similar to how 'bravery' comes from 'brave.'
This word is almost completely obsolete, replaced by the simpler 'elasticity,' but it reveals how English once had dozens of -ery nouns describing qualities—it's a word fossil showing how the language pruned redundant vocabulary.
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