POLAR'ITY, noun That quality of a body in virtue of which peculiar properties reside in certain points; usually, as in electrified or magnetized bodies, properties of attraction or repulsion, or the power of taking a certain direction. Thus we speak of the polarity of the magnet or magnetic needle, whose pole is not always that of the earth, but a point somewhat easterly or westerly; and the deviation of the needle from a north and south line is called its variation. A mineral is said to possess polarity when it attracts one pole of a magnetic needle and repels the other.
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Webster's Dictionary 1828
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.