harshness
(ˈhɑːʃnɪs)
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The quality of being harsh; unpleasant roughness, discordance, severity, rigour, etc.: see the adj.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Agnes 122 With harsknes he can hir assalȝe. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxii. 19 For harsknes of hir carlich throt. 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 15 To avoyde all maner harshenesse..whan many consonantes come betwene the vowelles. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 86 Hartis tung..hath a byndyng taste with an harrishnes. 1695 Addison tr. Virg. Georg. iv. Wks. 1721 I. 21 Luscious sweets, that..Correct the harshness of the racy juice. a 1782 Blair Lect. xviii. 18 Harshness arises from unusual words; from forced inversions..and too much neglect of smoothness and ease. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 289 My needful seeming harshness, pardon. |