mansuetude
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
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
Explanation
The word mansuetude refers to a quality of gentleness, mildness, or tameness. For a new rider, mansuetude is a very desirable quality in a horse. Mansuetude is a noun form of an adjective that is obsolete: The word mansuete meant "gentle, meek, or tame," but it's no longer used. The word's Latin roots are manus, meaning "hand," and suescere, "to accustom." In literature, you might see the word used to describe gentleness in a person or imaginary being: "The giant looked frightening, but he displayed a surprising mansuetude." The word can describe things in nature, too: for example, "the mansuetude of the morning breeze after the previous night's storm."
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.
Apodeictic, muliebrity, mansuetude, even caducity, caliginosity, nitid, agrestic, roborant or vilipend have Latin or Greek roots that are very familiar to me and most high school graduates.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Indeed!" he said, sullenly, even roughly, his habitual mansuetude giving way before this—for so he could not but take it—contemptuous flinging of his immense tenderness, his patient, unswerving devotion, back in his face.
From Deadham Hard by Malet, Lucas
To one so much a stranger to the mansuetude of Polynesians, this must have seemed an act of desperation; and the baron’s gallantry met with a deserved success.
From A Footnote to History Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa by Stevenson, Robert Louis
He was positively sheeplike in his mansuetude, whereas I had intended to make him a stern avenger of virtue.
From A Top-Floor Idyl by Van Schaick, George
As he approached it, such reminiscences crowded upon him, above all of the life there of the aged Antoninus Pius, in its wonderful mansuetude and calm.
From Marius the Epicurean — Volume 2 by Pater, Walter
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.
