[f. STUBBORN a. + -NESS.] The quality of being stubborn.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 475/1. Styburnesse, austeritas, ferocitas.
1467–8. Rolls of Parlt., V. 621/2. Because of the gretnesse and stobournesse of the same Wolle.
1530. Palsgr., 277/2. Stubbernesse, contumace.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xiii. 17. Yf ye wil not heare me … I will mourne fro my whole herte for youre stubburnesse.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 56 b. Some for their stony stubbernes and mad obstinacy were adjudged to dye.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. i. 19. Happy is your Grace That can translate the stubbornnesse of fortune Into so quiet and so sweet a stile.
1680. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., x. 190. A thick String … having a strength and stubbornness proportionable to its size, it will not comply closely to a piece of Work of small Diameter.
1700. Dryden, To J. Dryden, 185. Patriots, in Peace, assert the Peoples Right, With noble Stubbornness resisting Might.
1757. Home, Douglas, III. 31. Hard he seems And old in villainy. Permit us try His stubbornness against the torture’s force.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 1. 162. The Prince [Llewelyn] held out in Snowdon with the stubbornness of despair.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., II. vii. 402. They were endowed with a full share of Scotch stubbornness, jealousy and self-assertion.
