suavity

English

Etymology

From Middle English suavyte, suavite, suavitee, from Middle French suavité and its etymon Latin suāvitas.

Noun

suavity (countable and uncountable, plural suavities)

1. The quality of being sweet or pleasing to the mind; agreeableness; pleasantness

   suavity of manners

   suavity of language, conversation, or address

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     [...] nothing, not even the crude curves of the railway, can utterly deform the suavity of contour of one bay after another along the whole reach of the Riviera.

2. (obsolete) Sweetness or agreeableness to the senses, especially of taste and odour.
   • 1513, Henry Bradshaw, edited by Edward Hawkins, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge: Very Frutefull for All Christen People to Rede (Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester Published by The Chetham Society; volume XV), […] The Chetham Society, published 1848:

     Whan this ſayd monument diſcouered was / Suche a ſuauite and fragrant odoure / Aſcended from the corps by ſingular grace / Paſſyng all worldly ſwetnes and ſauour / That all there present that day and hour / Suppoſed they had ben / in the felicite / Of erthely paradiſe / without ambiguite.

Translations

-The quality of being sweet or pleasing to the mind

• Dutch: hoflijkheid f
• Finnish: sulavakäytöksisyys
• French: courtoisie (fr) f

See also

• suaveness
• blandness

References

• Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes