nocence
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin nocēntia (“guilt, transgression”), from nocēns (“harmful, guilty”).
Noun
[edit]nocence (uncountable)
- (obsolete, rare) Guilt; transgression.
- 1614, Thomas Adams, The deuills banket described in foure sermons[1], London: […] Thomas Snodham for Ralph Mab, […], pages 123-124:
- The iniquities of theſe dayes are not aſhamed to ſhew their faces; but vvalke the ſtreets without feare of a Serieant, The ſinnes of the Citie are as pert and apert as the ſonnes of the Citie. I would Iniquitie was not bolder then Honeſtie; or that Innocence might ſpeed no worſe then Nocence.
- 1672, George Thomson, A letter sent to Mr. Henry Stubbe wherein the Galenical method & medicaments, as likewise bloud-letting in particular, are offered to be proved ineffectual or destructibve to mankind, by experimental demonstrations: […] [2], London: […] Nath. Crouch, pages 5-6:
- For this Reaſon you unworthily detract from me, reviling me with taunting language, without any further ſcrutiny into matter of Fact; which I must court or urge you to, that I may cleer my ſelf, and certifie who is illiterate (as to the knowledge of things) conducible to our better State (for that's the principal end of Language) or who of us is the pretender to the Art of Physick or Chymistry, that ingenious men may underſtand the meaning of those terms, which you (like a cunning Gipſie, hoping thereby to ſuggest to the Reader, that no matter of Moment is contained in the whole Tenour of my words) call Canting: The Efficacie or Inefficacie, the Innocence or Nocence of the Stom. Esse. alias, ſtiled by you Pepper-drops, which you maliciously, ignorantly vilifie, to gratifie the Apothecaries, and their poor-ſpirited Doctors, who are forced in this Exigence to truckle, to cloſe in, and to carry fair with thoſe whom I am certain they cordially hate.
- 1756, Elizabeth Evelyn, “Letter XXXIX: Miſs Evelyn to Lady Evelyn”, in The Complete Letter-Writer: or, New and Polite English Secretary, 2nd edition, […] S. Crowder, and H. Woodgate, page 179:
- Sunday, Mamma, the Bride and Bridegroom, I told you, return'd to the Wells. – Monday Evening appeared at the Rooms in Splendor. Mrs. Macnamara, in all the nocence of a white-and-ſilver-full-trimm'd-French-ſack, her Hair ſo dreſſed and powdered with Jewels to the laſt Degree of Taſte, […]