also bi-polarity, "state of having two poles," 1834; see bipolar + -ity.
Entries linking to bipolarity
bipolar adj.
"having two poles;" see bi- "two" + polar. It is attested from 1810 in the figurative sense of "of double aspect;" by 1859 with reference to anatomy ("having two processes from opposite poles," of nerve cells). Psychiatric use in reference to what had been called manic-depressive psychosis is said to have begun 1957 with German psychiatrist Karl Leonhard. The term became popular early 1990s. Bipolar disorder was in DSM III (1980).
-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]