unforgivingness

English

Etymology

unforgiving +‎ -ness

Noun

unforgivingness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being unforgiving.
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Volume, Chapter ,^[1]

     But now they are sufficiently cleared from every imputation of unforgivingness; for, while I appeared to them in the character of a vile hypocrite, pretending to true penitence, yet giving up myself to profligate courses, how could I expect either their pardon or blessing?

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapter 12,^[2]

     She knew not how such an offence as hers might be classed by the laws of worldly politeness, to what a degree of unforgivingness it might with propriety lead, nor to what rigours of rudeness in return it might justly make her amenable.

   • 1888, James Russell Lowell, “Credidimus Jovem Regnare” in Heartsease and Rue, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., p. 185,^[3]

     And yet I frankly must confess

     A secret unforgivingness,

     And shudder at the saving chrism

     Whose best New Birth is Pessimism;

   • 1970, Tamara Talbot Rice, Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, Praeger, p. 105,^[4]

     They had spent their entire lives as prisoners in Siberia and they now appealed to the empress for their release. In a rare instance of unforgivingness Elizabeth refused to grant it.