[f. as prec.] The quality of being unaffected.
† 1. Impassiveness, indifference. Obs.
1670. Devout Commun. (1688), 203. Charge not upon me … my unpreparedness, unaffectedness.
1681. Kettlewell, Chr. Obedience (1715), 528. The coldness and unaffectedness, the unsettledness and distractions, which they find in themselves when they are at prayers. Ibid. (1694), Comp. Penitent, 55. I am grieved … for all my neglects of thy service, and for my insincerity and unaffectedness in performing it.
2. Freedom from affectation; naturalness.
1685. H. More, Paralip. Prophet., vi. 38. Which Letter, as I said, is written with … unaffectedness and punctualness withal.
1752. Narr. Journ. through Eng. (1869), 32. She seemed to have all that delicacy and unaffectedness requisite to persons of the first rank.
1783. Blair, Lect., xix. I. 398. The simplicity or unaffectedness of his manner, is the crowning ornament.
1861. Thackeray, Four Georges, iv. (1862), 192. Not ill liked by the nation, which pardons youthful irregularities readily enough for the sake of pluck, unaffectedness and good-humour.
1882. J. Antisell Allen, Love-Story Col. & Mrs. Hutchinson, 39.
| What dignity of bearing! yet withal, | |
| What simple, winning unaffectedness. |
