bluntness

English

Etymology

From Middle English bluntnes, bluntnesse, equivalent to blunt +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈblʌnt.nəs/, /ˈblʌnt.nɪs/, [ˈblʌnʔ.nɪs]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌntnəs

Noun

bluntness (countable and uncountable, plural bluntnesses)

1. The characteristic of being blunt.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion […] such talk had been distressingly out of place.

   • 1953, Ian Fleming, “The Secret Agent”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 7:

     James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or his mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge. This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes.

Translations

the characteristic of being blunt

• Finnish: tylppyys (fi)
• Latvian: trulums m
• Macedonian: та́пост f (tápost), зата́пеност f (zatápenost)
• Manx: (of a point) neuvirrid m, (of tools, etc.) moandid m, moandys m, (of person, speech, etc.) bryntid m, bryntys m, moalaght f, moalid m
• Marathi: बोथटपणा m (bothṭapṇā)
• Polish: bezceremonialność (pl) f (of a person or action)
• Russian: затупление (ru) n (zatuplenije), туповатость (ru) f (tupovatostʹ)