shamefastness arch.
(ˈʃeɪmfɑːstnɪs, -æ-)
[f. shamefast a. + -ness.]
1. Modesty, sobriety of behaviour, decency, propriety; bashfulness, shyness. Also, † a feeling of shame, ashamedness.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 73 Min shamfestnesse is togenes me. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 193 Wymmen..in convenable abite, wiþ schamefastnesse and sobirnesse ournynge hem. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 840 And ye, sire clerk, lat be your shamefastnesse, Ne studieth noght. c 1460 Sir R. Ros La Belle Dame 120 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 84 To syng also, by force he wasse constrayned, ffor no plesaunce, but verrey schamfastnesse. 1513 Life Hen. V (1911) 144 The Kinge..kissed..the Ladye Katherine,..w{supc}{suph} was not done w{supt}{suph}out some shamefastnes of that virgin. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. ii. (Arb.) 141 And in stede of the feruente desyre, which prouoketh a chylde to be better than hys felowe, lette a man be as much stirred vp with shamefastnes to be worse than all other. 1642 D. Rogers Naaman 324 Others out of bashfulnesse and shamefastnesse, loath to be troublesome. 1646 W. Price Mans Delinq. 11 Even Nature (saith Tertullian) hath cast a shamefastnesse on all sinfull evill. 1697 J. Sergeant Solid Philos. a 6, Out of Niaiserie and Shamefastness says at every turn (I think, or perhaps this is true, or may be true). 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. iii. 360 Blanche..almost cried with indignant ‘shamefastness’. 1882 Swinburne Tristram iii. 69 She looked on him and loved him; but being young Made shamefastness a seal upon her tongue. |
† b. personified.
| 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxii. (1845) 159 And first she led me to the upper ward, Where Shamefastnes did us well regarde, For he was gayler. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. x. 50 And next to her sate goodly Shamefastnesse, Ne euer durst her eyes from ground vpreare. |
† 2. Misused for: Shamelessness. Obs.
| 1589 Nashe Anat. Absurditie Wks. (Grosart) I. 26 It seemes that law is turned to libertie, and honest ciuilitie into impudent shamefastnes. |