hardiness meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hardiness

noun

Etymology From Middle English hardynesse; equivalent to hardy + -ness.

› 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.

Kale is known for its winter-hardiness.
[…] with usefull and generous labours preserving the bodies health, and hardinesse; to render lightsome, cleare, and not lumpish obedience to the minde,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:

2 more examples

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 […]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:
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.1915, Nellie McClung, chapter 4, in In Times Like These, Toronto: McLeod & Allen:

Obsolete The quality of being bold in the face of risk or authority.

Plentie, and Peace breeds Cowards: Hardneſſe euer / Of Hardineſſe is Mother.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:
[…] 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.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, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater, page 465:

1 more example

[…] 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;1856, John Ruskin, chapter 6, in Modern Painters […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, , § 6:

Obsolete Hardship; fatigue.

Yet ſure they are very valiant, and hardy, for the moſt part great Indurers of Cold, Labour, Hunger, and all Hardineſs […]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: