A nearlattice is a join semilattice such that every principal filter is a lattice with respect to the induced order. Hickman and later Chajda et al independently showed that nearlattices can be treated as varieties of algebras with a ternary operation satisfying certain axioms. Our main result is that the variety of nearlattices is $2$-based, and we exhibit an explicit system of two independent identities. We also show that the original axiom systems of Hickman as well as that of Chajda et al are dependent.
In recent papers, S. N. Begum and A. S. A. Noor have studied join partial semilattices (JP-semilattices) defined as meet semilattices with an additional partial operation (join) satisfying certain axioms. We show why their axiom system is too weak to be a satisfactory basis for the authors’ constructions and proofs, and suggest an additional axiom for these algebras. We also briefly compare axioms of JP-semilattices with those of nearlattices, another kind of meet semilattices with a partial join operation.