impiteous

English

Etymology

From im- +‎ piteous.

Adjective

impiteous (comparative more impiteous, superlative most impiteous)

1. (obsolete) Not showing pity or mercy.

   Synonyms: cruel, pitiless

   • 1547, Arthur Kelton, A Chronycle with a Genealogie Declaryng That the Brittons and Welshemen are Linealiye Dyscended from Brute, London: Richard Grafton, ^[1]

     […] cruell Ualerian

     Uoide of all fauoure, most impiteous

     Of Emperoures all, none more vngracious

     Against Christes faithe,

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Hamlet in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, Act II, Scene 2 [Act IV, Scene 5],^[2]

     The Ocean (ouer-peering of his List)

     Eates not the Flats with more impittious haste

     Then young Laertes, in a Riotous head,

     Ore-beares your Officers,

   • 1878, John Addington Symonds (translator), “Sonnet XXIII. The Modern Cupid” by Tommaso Campanella, in The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella, London: Smith, Elder, p. 141,^[3]

     Through full three thousand years the world reveres

     Blind Love that bears the quiver and hath wings:

     Now too he’s deaf, and to the sufferings

     Of folk in anguish turns impiteous ears.