sweet-heartedness

See also: sweetheartedness

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From sweet-hearted +‎ -ness.

Noun

sweet-heartedness (uncountable)

  1. The quality of being sweet-hearted.
    • 1865, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Chastelard; a Tragedy, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, Act IV (Murray), scene iv, pages 162–163:
      What ails it them though I be soft or hard? / Soft hearts would weep and weep and let men die / For very mercy and sweet-heartedness; / I that weep little for my pity’s sake, / I have the grace to save men.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “Go, Woman!”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 203:
      Thou sayest, too, that a crime breeds evil, but therein thou dost lack experience; for out of crimes come many good things, and out of good grows much evil. The cruel rage of the tyrant may prove a blessing to thousands who come after him, and the sweet-heartedness of a holy man may make a nation slaves.
    • 1895 January, Caroline Atwater Mason, “A Minister of the World”, in The Ladies’ Home Journal, volume XII, number 2, Philadelphia, Pa.: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, section V, page 8, column 3:
      Her letter lay on the table beside him, and with it a faded, old-fashioned card photograph of Aunt Eliza, which would have signified nothing to a stranger, but in seeing which Stephen could call up vividly the arch smile, the unconscious grace, the pure sweet-heartedness which had made the little old lady so dear to him.

References

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