impassionateness

From impassionate +‎ -ness.

impassionateness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being impassionate (lacking passion).

   Synonym: dispassionateness

   Antonyms: impassionedness, passionateness

   • 1650, [Anthony Ascham], “The Introduction”, in An Answer to the Vindication of Doctor Hamond, against the Exceptions of Eutactus Philodemius. , London: Francis Tyton, , page 1:

     I may not but conjecture that Doctor Hamond is better learned in this kinde of ſcience then my ſelf, having vantage ground of me in years, ſtudy and experience, and yet he hath gone farther in diſcovering himſelf, and his paſſions then thus, in his Vindication againſt E. P. and (contrary to his profeſſed impaſſionateneſs) hath ſo far betrayed himſelf, as to tranſmit the Image and Character of the perturbation and paſſionate heat of his ſpirit, by his Pen, to the view of the world, as his ſaid Vindication will manifeſtly teſtify.

   • 1672, S[erenus] C[ressy], “The Authours Motive of Writing this Treatise. Doctour Stillingfleets three Heads of Accusation against the Catholick Church, &c.”, in Fanaticism Fanatically Imputed to the Catholick Church by Doctour Stillingfleet: and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted , : , paragraph 8, pages 8–9:

     For being engaged to make Reflexions on that part of his Book which is of leaſt importance, writen in an immodeſt, uncivill, petulant ſtile, it was not fitt in my Answer to mingle conſiderations on a Subiect ſo ſerious, and ſoberly expreſſed as his Principles are, which indeed deſerve to be examined ſeparately with all poſſible calmness and impaſſionateness, as being an Argument on which all other Controverſies do depend, and which one way or other makes an end of them all.

   • 1860, Ed , “Pastorate.—No. iv.”, in The Christian Advocate: A Monthly Magazine to Plead for an Unqualified Return to the Faith Once for All Delivered to the Saints, volume IV, Edinburgh: Kerr, , pages 189–190:

     It is chiefly in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus that we find the requisites for this work enumerated, and there we note about twenty specific attributes of character, as follows: […] 18. Impassionateness. “Not angry” is the reverse of irascibility or fretfulness. A wrathful shepherd is a moral anomaly.

   • 1871, Edward Moore, An Introduction to Aristotle’s Ethics: Books I—IV. , London, Oxford, Oxon, Cambridge, Cambs.: Rivingtons, page 101:

     In reference to the regulation of the Temper—(1) Passionateness, (2) Meekness, (3) Impassionateness (if there be such a word to describe a state which rarely exists).

   • 1871, Prata´pachandra Ghosha, Durga Puja: With Notes and Illustrations, Calcutta: he “Hindoo Patriot” Press , page 36:

     Offer frankincense of the twenty-five essences of nature, and present the flowers of harmlessness, of intelligence, of forbearance, of mercy, of contentment, of knowledge, unenviousness, of non-illusiveness, of pridelessness, of impassionateness, of uninimicalness, and of the twelve organs of the body.

   • 1879, Aristotle, translated by Walter M. Hatch, The Moral Philosophy of Aristotle: Consisting of a Translation of the Nicomachean Ethics, and of the Paraphrase Attributed to Andronicus of Rhodes, with an Introductory Analysis of Each Book; , London: John Murray, , page 223:

     Deficiency of temper, on the other hand, whatever it be called—whether a species of impassionateness or what not, is censurable. Those whose anger is never roused against objects which deserve it, are thought to be fools, as are they also who are never incensed as they should be, nor when they should be, nor at things at which they should be. Such an one seems to have no proper feeling nor sense of pain: if he shows no anger, he is thought incapable of self-defence.

   • 1881, “Hysteria”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, 9th edition, volume XII, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 600, column 2:

     [I]n the more excitable races we find on the whole a greater tendency to hysterical excitement, in those whose national characteristic is calm and impassionateness a tendency to hysterical depression; […]

   • 1881, the Lounger in Society , “At Home”, in The Glass of Fashion: A Universal Handbook of Social Etiquette and Home Culture for Ladies and Gentlemen. , London: John Hogg, , pages 3–6:

     [A] gentleman is one whose aims are generous, […]: Shakespeare’s Ferdinand, with the air of Mercutio, the manliness of Edgar, the passion of Romeo, and the constancy of Orlando. […] As for the true lady, she will be, of necessity, the counterpart of the true gentleman: pure, refined, generous, sweet of temper, gentle of speech, truthful to her heart’s core, shunning the very shadow of evil, instant in well-doing, with the enthusiasm of a Joan of Arc, the exquisite innocence of an Imogen, the devotion of a Desdemona, the frank gaiety of a Rosalind, the boundless impassionateness of a St. Theresa.

   • 1903, “The Wisdom That Is from Below. James iii. 13-16.”, in An Exposition of the Bible: A Series of Expositions Covering All the Books of the Old and New Testament, volumes VI (Ephesians–Revelation), Hartford, Conn.: The S. S. Scranton Co., page 603, column 1:

     The Christian grace of meekness is a good deal more than the rather second-rate virtue which Aristotle makes to be the mean between passionateness and impassionateness, and to consist in a due regulation of one’s angry feelings (“Eth. Nic.” IV. v.).

2. The quality of being impassionate (filled with passion).

   Synonyms: impassionedness, passionateness

   Antonym: dispassionateness

   • 1811 November 12, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Letter XIV”, in Letters from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Elizabeth Hitchener. , London: Bertram Dobell, ; New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Co., published 1908, page 79:

     I pour out my whole soul to you. I write by fleeting intervals: my pen runs away with my senses. The impassionateness of my sensations grows upon me.

   • 1845 June 5, J. L⁠⸺⁠y, “Liszt the Concertist”, in The Musical World, volume XX, number 23, London, page 269, column 1:

     But every succeeding piece assumed with Liszt a more pronounced character, and more exhibited the cloven foot, as it were, of Genius. What Bizarrérie is their in the recital on the “Tarentella!” What humour, caprice, intricacy, and impassionateness, and fire and glowing—all, however, superfused by the higher principle of rule, order, and system.

   • 1851, B Clarke, chapter XIV, in Conviction. A Tale. , volume III, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, , page 156:

     He looked backward to the sweet simplicity of Edith’s character; he looked forward with that high anticipation with which man’s impassionateness invests the objects of our earthly adoration.

   • 1878, Launcelot Cross , “A Typical Literary Periodical”, in Characteristics of Leigh Hunt, as Exhibited in That Typical Literary Periodical, “Leigh Hunt’s London Journal” (1834-35). , London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., page 38:

     This Journal leavens our present literature, though the fact is little known, and less acknowledged. Writers are still amongst us whose intellects were informed and directed by its pages: the labours of many more are bestowed on fields of activity which, (unconsciously to them,) its author made intelligible for sources of use and beauty, and the benign impassionateness with which they are imbued greatly owes its literary parentage to him.

   • 1889, Ivan Panin, “Introductory”, in Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy, New York, N.Y., London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, paragraph 3, page 3:

     [T]he time soon arrives when the soul recognizes that by the side of the Prince of Light there also dwells the Prince of Darkness; that not only is there in the Universe a great God the Good, but also a great Devil the Evil; and with the impetuosity and impassionateness of youth it gives itself up to lamentation, to indignation.