hardiness
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: hardinesses
Etymology: From Middle English hardynesse; equivalent to hardy + -ness.
Senses: examples: text: Kale is known for its winter-hardiness.
text: […] with usefull and generous labours preserving the bodies health, and hardinesse; to render lightsome, cleare, and not lumpish obedience to the minde,
ref: 1642, John Milton, An apology against a pamphlet call’d A modest confutation of the animadversions upon the remonstrant against Smectymnuus, London: John Rothwell, page 13:
text: But the Houynhnhnms train up their Youth to Strength, Speed, and Hardineſs, by exerciſing them in running Races up and down ſteep Hills, and over hard and ſtony Grounds […]
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Relates Several Particulars of the Yahoos. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 284:
text: Wild wheat is small and hard, quite capable of looking after itself, but its heads contain only a few small kernels. Cultivated wheat has lost its hardiness and its self-reliance, but its heads are filled with large kernels which feed the nation.
ref: 1915, Nellie McClung, chapter 4, in In Times Like These, Toronto: McLeod & Allen:
glosses: The quality of being hardy.
The quality of being able to withstand fatigue and hardship; (of a plant) the quality of being resistant to cold or other environmental conditions.
examples: text: Plentie, and Peace breeds Cowards: Hardneſſe euer / Of Hardineſſe is Mother.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], page 385, column 2:
text: […] they who were not yet grown to the hardineſs of Avowing the contempt of the King […] would ſooner have been checked, and recovered their Loyalty and Obedience.
ref: 1702, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, Book V, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641, volume I, Oxford: The Theater, page 465:
text: […] for every sorrow that his heart turned from, he lost a consolation; for every fear which he dared not confront, he lost a portion of his hardiness; the unsceptred sweep of the storm-clouds, the fair freedom of glancing shower and flickering sunbeam, sank into sweet rectitudes and decent formalisms;
ref: 1856, John Ruskin, chapter 6, in Modern Painters […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, , § 6:
glosses: The quality of being hardy.
The quality of being bold in the face of risk or authority.
synonyms: hardihood
audacity
boldness
firmness
assurance
examples: text: Yet ſure they are very valiant, and hardy, for the moſt part great Indurers of Cold, Labour, Hunger, and all Hardineſs […]
ref: 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as “A View of the State of Ireland”, in The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume VI, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], 1715, →OCLC, page 1577:
glosses: Hardship; fatigue.
Related terms: foolhardiness
hardness
heartiness