hardnesse

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English heardness; equivalent to hard +‎ -nesse.

Noun

hardnesse

1. hardness, the quality of being hard
   • c. 1380s, [Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton, editor], The Double Sorow of Troylus to Telle Kyng Pryamus Sone of Troye [...] [Troilus and Criseyde], [Westminster]: Explicit per Caxton, published 1482, →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], book II, [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio clxxx, recto:

     For truſteth wel, to longe ydone hardneſſe / Cauſeth diſpyte ful often for diſtreſſe

     For trust this well: Too long maintained hardness / Creates contempt from distress.

   • a. 1460, Reginald Pecock, edited by Elsie Vaughan Hitchcock, The Donet, Early English Text Society, published 1921:

     As it is forto se þingis present to þ^e siȝt, heere þ^e sown present to þ^e eeris, touche hardnesse, neischnes, heet, or coold present to þ^e touche, & so forþe of oþire.

     As it is to see things present to the sight, here the sound present to the ears, touch hardness, softness, heat, or cold present to the touch, and so forth of others.

Descendants

• English: hardness