a. Also 6–7 -all. [f. L. stōic-us (see prec.) + -AL.]
1. Of or belonging to the Stoics; characteristic of the Stoic philosophy.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), IV. 205. This Cato was a philosophre of the stoicalle secte.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. 275. Standing much upon that stoicall opinion, that onely a wise and good man is free, and that all wicked men are bond men and slaves.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. ii. § 10. Which consequence is unavoidable on the Stoical Hypothesis of Gods being corporeal and confined to the World.
1778. Reid, Ess. Active Powers Man, III. III. iii. 218. We cannot but admire the Stoical system of morals.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. ii. 237. The stoical system of ethics was in the highest sense a system of independent morals.
1887. Mahaffy & Gilman, Alexander’s Empire, xxvii. 253. Such was already the result of Stoical teaching on the world!
2. a. Of temper or disposition, or its manifestations: Conformable to the precepts of the Stoic philosophy; characterized by indifference to pleasure and pain.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxi. 3. A hart that is benommed with Stoicall hardnes ageinst greefs and trubbles.
1596. Lodge, Marg. Amer., 74. Now let each of you bethinke him of mirth not of majestie, I will have no stoicall humor in this arbour.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., i. 2. For hardly they are to be admitted for Noble, who … consume their light … in contemplation, and a Stoicall retirednesse.
1739. Cibber, Apol. (1756), II. 31. My stoical way of thinking may be no rule for a wiser man’s opinion.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., vi. He looked around him in agony, and was surprised … to see the stoical indifference of his fellow-prisoners.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. ii. 99. The English nation would have looked on with stoical resignation if pope and papacy had been wrecked together.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 10. We feel his [Milton’s] inmost temper in the stoical self-repression which gives its dignity to his figures.
b. Of a person: Resembling a Stoic in austerity, indifference to pleasure and pain, repression of all feeling, and the like.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 83. If I should vtterly deny all kinde of such playes, then shoulde I bee thought too stoicall and precise.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., B 1 b. Antient antiquitie was woont to bee such a stoycall obseruer of continencie, that women were not permitted so much as to kisse their Kinsmen.
1596. Warner, Alb. Eng., XI. lxi. (1602), 268. Nor was he stoicall in ought, but affable in all.
1612. Selden, Illustr. Drayton’s Poly-olb., VIII. 132. The Scythian was … so Stoicall, as not to care for the future, hauing prouision for the present.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, 66. He is too stoicall that is wholly for his cell, and nothing for the world.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Essex (1662), 332. One saith of him [Wm. Gilbert] that he was Stoicall, but not Cynicall, which I understand Reserv’d, but not Morose.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 170. He was a different man from the reserved and stoical William whom the multitude supposed to be destitute of human feelings.
1855. Prescott, Philip II., I. I. i. 7. Every one, even the most stoical, was touched by this … scene.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xxxiii. She had much questioned if they would appear at the parting moment; but there they were, stoical and staunch to the last.
Hence Stoicalness.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Stoicalness, a holding the Principles of the Stoicks, that wise Men ought to be free from Passions, and that all Things were governed by Fate.
1818. in Todd.
