Unsureness

[UN-¹ 12.]

  1.  Uncertainty; insecurity.

1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, I. i. (1494), A vi b/1. Where they stode first in sykernesse Of ioye … Oute of their rest they fyll in vnsurenesse In sorowe and sighynge.

c. 1440.  Eng. Conq. Ireland, 51. And euery Surnesse hath vnsurnes at the ende.

1530.  Palsgr., 285/2. Unsurenesse, deseurete.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Infirmitas, What vnsurenes doe you see in the mariage hetherto?

1573.  Satir. Poems Reform., I. 275. The greit frailtie and vnsureness of all strenthis eirthly.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. xxii. 226. The state of man … doth shew … with what vnsurenesse the seat of maiesty is possest.

1863.  Holme Lee, A. Warleigh, III. 133. Her hints to Rachel … touching the unsureness of the future.

  † 2.  Unsteadiness, fickleness. Obs.^–1

a. 1470.  Tiptoft, Tulle on Friendsh. (Caxton, 1481), C ij. There ben two thynges, which prove in many men lightnesse and unsurenesse.