Coarsenesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being rough or lacking in refinement
2. The state of having an unpleasant texture or being unpolished in nature
3. Various forms or instances of roughness in material or behavior

Etymology: The plural "coarsenesses" is simply the plural of "coarseness," the noun for the quality of being coarse. That noun is built from the adjective "coarse" plus the suffix "-ness," which English has attached to adjectives since Old English to turn a quality into a noun. The suffix descends from an ancient Germanic form, "-nassī," which was the same kind of abstract-noun ending in the early Germanic languages and is related to the Old English "-nes," later "-ness." "Coarse" itself had a different starting sense: it has long meant rough or of inferior quality in texture, and the "-ness" noun inherited that idea of physical roughness alongside its later meanings of vulgarity and lack of refinement. Because the base adjective carries both senses, the plural form "coarsenesses" is used when a writer wants to point to several separate instances of crudeness or roughness rather than the quality in general.

Synonyms: rudeness, vulgarity, roughness, crudeness

Antonyms: refinement, politeness, smoothness, elegance