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mansuetude

[man-swi-tood, -tyood]
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noun
  1. mildness; gentleness: the mansuetude of Christian love.
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Origin of mansuetude

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin mānsuētūdō tameness, mildness, equivalent to mānsuē-, base of mānsuēscere to become tame, mild (man(us) hand + suēscere to become accustomed) + -tūdō -tude
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for mansuetude

Historical Examples

  • In any case, the mansuetude of the good emperor was in this respect shielded from all reproach.

    English Conferences of Ernest Renan

    Ernest Renan

  • It stands in the history of the present time as a high school for the civility and mansuetude of the people.

    The Last Harvest

    John Burroughs

  • He was positively sheeplike in his mansuetude, whereas I had intended to make him a stern avenger of virtue.

    A Top-Floor Idyl

    George van Schaick

  • The system has no room for it; even as it has no room for clemency, mansuetude; forbearance towards the weak.

    From a Cornish Window

    Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

British Dictionary definitions for mansuetude

mansuetude

noun
  1. archaic gentleness or mildness
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Word Origin

C14: from Latin mansuētūdō, from mansuētus, past participle of mansuēscere to make tame by handling, from manus hand + suescēre to train
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mansuetude

n.

"tameness, gentleness, mildness," late 14c., from Latin mansuetudo "tameness, mildness, gentleness," noun of state from past participle stem of mansuescere "to tame," literally "to accustom to the hand," from manus "hand" (see manual (adj.)) + suescere "to accustom, habituate," from PIE *swdh-sko-, from *swedh- (cf. sodality), extended form of root *s(w)e- (see idiom).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper