1822, "state of being infected with rabies;" 1825, "state of being furious or violently raving;" see rabid + -ity.
Entries linking to rabidity
rabid adj.
1610s, "furious, raving, behaving violently," from Latin rabidus "raging, furious, enraged; inspired; ungoverned; rabid," from rabere "be mad, rave" (see rage (v.)). The specific meaning "made mad by rabies" in English is recorded by 1804. Related: Rabidly; rabidness.
-ity
word-forming element making abstract nouns from adjectives and meaning "condition or quality of being ______," from Middle English -ite, from Old French -ete (Modern French -ité) and directly from Latin -itatem (nominative -itas), suffix denoting state or condition, composed of -i- (from the stem or else a connective) + the common abstract suffix -tas (see -ty (2)).
Roughly, the word in -ity usually means the quality of being what the adjective describes, or concretely an instance of the quality, or collectively all the instances; & the word in -ism means the disposition, or collectively all those who feel it. [Fowler]