positiveness
(ˈpɒzɪtɪvnɪs)
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The quality of being positive.
† 1. Reality of existence; actuality, affirmative nature. Obs.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. i. §3. 28 Positiveness, Thesis. 1678 Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 302 The Positiveness of Sins of Omission, is in the Habitude of the Will only. |
2. Subjective certainty; confidence, assurance; expression of assuredness; dogmatism, obstinacy.
| 1679 Dryden Troilus & Cress. Ep. Ded., He was brave without Vanity, and knowing without Positiveness. 1711 Countrey-Man's Let. to Curat 76 Positiveness without Proof is Intolerable. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. i. iv. (1849) 58 Authors who, from the positiveness of their assertions, seem to have been eye-witnesses of the fact. 1885 Ranney in Harper's Mag. Mar. 640/1 The function of these..fibres is not yet determined with positiveness. |
b. Definiteness, directness, peremptoriness.
| 1736 Carte Ormonde II. 289 If upon the literal positiveness of the King's directions we had immediately transmitted them to the commissioners. |