fortitions

Noun

fortition (countable and uncountable, plural fortitions)

1. A sound change in which a consonant becomes more fortis.
   • The two process types following from these assumptions, lenition processes, aiming at articulatory ease at the expense of perception, and fortition processes, resulting in articulatory difficulty in favor of better perception, were further modified by Dressler & Drachman (1977), as lenitions need...1988, Sylvia Moosmüller, Sociophonology, Peter Auer, Aldo di Luzio (editors), Variation and Convergence: Studies in Social Dialectology, page 76

   Antonyms:

   lenition

2. (obsolete) Casual choice; fortuitous selection; hazard.
   • No rotation; no appointment by lot; no mode of election operating in the spirit of fortition or rotation, can be generally good in a government conversant in extensive objects.1790, Edmund Burke, “Relections on the Revolution in France”, in Thomas Haviland Burke, editor, Opinions on Reform, published 1831, page 17