longanimity
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of longanimity
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English longanimyte, from Late Latin longanimitās “patience,” equivalent to longanimi(s) “patient” ( long(us) long 1 + anim(us) “spirit” + -is adjective suffix) + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Your longanimity is what keeps you calm and patient, even when you're running late on a crowded bus that's stuck in rush hour traffic. Use the noun longanimity when you want an uncommon way to say "cool, calm, and collected." If you stay relaxed and smiling while you're waiting to get a driver's license or on hold with the cable company, you've got an admirable amount of longanimity. The Latin root is longanimitas, which means "long-suffering or patient" and comes from longus, "long," and animus, "spirit or mind."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The language is heavily latinate: durable usages include "adulterate", "verity" and "prescience", while "potestates", "longanimity" and "conculcation" failed to stick.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 19, 2011
The holes in his bed linens finally exhausted even Lady Churchill's longanimity, and she gave him a smart dressing down.
From Time Magazine Archive
But should evil tongues, growing yet sharper and keener, cut to the very quick, longanimity, which is an unfailing, undying patience, is ready to enter the lists, and eager to help us.
From The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales by Jean Pierre Camus
For being resolved never to yield or forsake their faith, they had not patience and longanimity to expect the Providence of God, “qui attingit a fine usque ad finem fortiter et disponit omnia suaviter.”
From The Condition of Catholics Under James I. by John Gerard
Wherefore as magnanimity regards hope, which tends to good, rather than daring, fear, or sorrow, which have evil as their object, so also does longanimity.
From Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Saint Thomas Aquinas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
