Definition of "persistency"

By this hand thou, thinkeſt me as farre in the diuels booke, as thou and Falſtaffe, for obduracie and perſiſtancie, let the end trie the man, [...]

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, [Act II, scene ii]

On entering her room he had been struck by the absence of that saucy independence usually apparent in her bearing towards him, notwithstanding the persistency with which he had hovered near her for the previous month.

1880–1881, Thomas Hardy, chapter V, in A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-day. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1881, book the fourth (Somerset, Dare and De Stancy), page 267

However that may be, the hostility of the comic writers had evidently a general hostility behind it. Our tradition states this definitely and the persistency of the attacks proves it.

1913, Gilbert Murray, Euripides and His Age, Chapter II

"I'm not into mood changes," he says. "These ups and downs undermine consistency and persistency of purpose."

2008 March 29, Ed Pilkington, “The white house losers”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 6 July 2014

The table shows that three-year "persistencies" range from 89.6 per cent with Standard Life (this means only 10 per cent of plans have lapsed after three years) to 58.9 per cent with Sun Life (almost 40 per cent of plans lapse after three years).

1998 March 28, John Chapman, “Pensions Investigated”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 6 July 2014