tempestuosity

English

Etymology

From tempestu(ous) +‎ -osity.

Noun

tempestuosity (countable and uncountable, plural tempestuosities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being tempestuous.

   Synonym: tempestuousness

   • [1721, N[athan] Bailey, “TEMPESTUOSITY”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Bell, J. Darby, […], →OCLC, column 2:

     TEMPESTUOSITY, [Tempeſtuoſitas, L.] Stormineſs.]

   • 1854, Andrew Brown, “Geological Structure of the Earth—Its Shape—Consolidation—Uniformity of Surface—[…]”, in The Philosophy of Physics or, Process of Creative Development, […], New York, N.Y.: Redfield, […], page 334:

     One wise provision against this is the expansion and excitement caused by this very calorific action, which is certainly the cause of the ocean’s fluidity; but it is no cause of the billow’s tempestuosity or upheaving of that element.

   • 1858, “Edith Clarel: A Story from Three Points of View”, in The Money Bag: Literature, Politics, Finance, volume I, number 1, London: Daniel F. Oakey, […], chapter III, page 14:

     Moreover he is entangled in the braid and gimp meshes of a fair and frail milliner, who loves him devotedly—is distracted by jealousy, and in the tenderness and tempestuosity of her aspirations and exasperations equally ignores the existence of the letter h.

   • 1880 March 6, Volta, “Music in New York”, in The Musical Record, number 75, Boston, Mass.: Oliver Ditson & Co., page 356, column 1:

     The tempestuosity of the leader displayed itself in his conducting of this composition, for he brought out his brass in a manner to make the audience almost cry out for mercy.

   • 1886, Annie Robertson Macfarlane, Children of the Earth (Leisure Hour Series; 192), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, part III, chapter XII, page 288:

     The Leader is not a cockle-shell, and the deep in the last week has exhausted its tempestuosity.

   • 1889, Richard Collinson, “H.M.S. Chanticleer. 1828-1831.”, in T[homas] B[ernard] Collinson, editor, Journal of H.M.S. Enterprise, on the Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin’s Ships by Behring Strait. 1850-55. […], London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, Limited, […], page 453:

     The South Shetlands gave them a final taste of their tempestuosity, by keeping the ship a week in getting out of the little harbour; […]

   • 2011, David J. Wertheim, “Historicism and Messianism”, in Salvation through Spinoza: A Study of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany, Leiden, Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, pages 168–169:

     These conditions shaped Spinoza’s youth in Kayser’s novel, where he wrote: “Baruch’s Jünglingsjahre sind von außen und innen mit Sturm erfüllt” (Baruch’s younger years are filled with tempestuosity from the inside and from the outside).

   • 2017, LaTendre' De' Moore, “Enigma”, in Simple Words (Forget Me Not), MDEL Publishing, →ISBN, pages 32–33:

     I am an enigmatic convolution / of paradoxical harmonics / strong tenderness / peaceful tempestuosity / triumphant humility / and childish genius / wrapped up in / innocent womanly femininity and grace / […]

   • 2020, Frank England, “The Sound of God”, in Fictions of God, Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick Publications, →ISBN:

     Given the sweeping and sublime tempestuosity of Wagner’s compositions, one would be somewhat courageous to tell him that!

2. (rare, countable) Someone or something that is tempestuous.
   • 1874 April 1, R. R. B., “Correspondence”, in The Publishers’ Circular and General Record of British and Foreign Literature […], volume XXXVII, number 878, published 16 April 1874, page 242:

     Mr. Theodore Tilton’s first novel, ‘Tempest Tossed,’ (Sheldon) promises to be a very powerful work, of the Hugo school; some think that this radical tempestuosity has found his forte in fiction.

   • 1880 January 22, Congressional Record: Containing the Proceedings and Debates of the Forty-Sixth Congress, Second Session, volume X, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 490, column 2:

     It must be remembered that one reason for the Muskingum and Kanawha being made such general subjects of Federal anxiety is that its waters are here and there found to be saline. This gives added fury to their tempestuosities; and but for oil, and appropriations for slack-water and a coffer-dam or so, their wild and ungovernable fury in rolling down to the gentle Gulf of Mexico and the inviolate sea would destroy utterly all the efforts and bankrupt all the corporations engaged in protecting and leveeing the Father of Waters.

   • 1893, Samuel S[ullivan] Cox, “The Orthodox Greek Church—Its Architecture, Synods, Progress, Condition, and Severance from Rome”, in Diversions of a Diplomat in Turkey, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., page 273:

     The Greek race regard the orthodox Church in a double sense: it is an anchor of salvation, in a religious and a national point of view. It has harbored them safely, as a Christian people and as a nation, amidst all the tempestuosities of revolution.

   • 1898, Henry Watterson, History of the Spanish-American War: Embracing a Complete Review of Our Relations with Spain, Martin-DeGarmo Company, page 200:

     […] once more braved the dangerous waters of the canal, and navigated his fleet through the frowning tempestuosities of the Mediterranean safely home without sustaining the loss of anything more than time and money.

   • 1924, Book Notes Illustrated, volume 3/4, page 166, column 1:

     A TOUCH of temperament is added to the tempestuosities of the current fiction season by Margaret Kennedy whose “The Constant Nymph” (Doubleday, Page) is an admirable story of the addition of talent to a set smug artistic climbers in London.

   • 1940, The Musical Record, volume 1/2, page 23, column 1:

     Staid Boston society brought up on the austere tempestuosities of Koussevitzky, were aghast at their visitor's Dionysian frenzies of whirling, jumping and crouching.

   • 1952 September 13, Charles Lee, “Foggy Aftermath”, in Saturday Review, volume XXXV, number 37, page 23, column 2:

     Some will say that “Headland” is thin in story, and so it is if cloak-and-dagger tempestuosities are the desiderata; […]