Styfnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being rigid and resistant to bending, a term used in older English for stiffness
2. An archaic word for the condition of being firm, unyielding, and hard to bend or move
3. Old English term describing the state of being stiff, inflexible, or unable to flex easily

Etymology: Middle English speakers built "styfnesse" by adding the suffix "-nesse" to the adjective "styf," meaning stiff. That suffix, the ancestor of modern "-ness," turns an adjective into a noun for a quality, so "styfnesse" named the state of being stiff, rigid, or unyielding. The Old English form was "stīfnes," and the adjective "stīf" is shared with German "steif" and Dutch "stijf," which suggests the root was already old in the Germanic languages. The spelling "y" for the vowel is a Middle English habit that later gave way to "i." The noun did not survive. English kept "stiffness," which adds the same suffix to the same adjective, so the modern form is a direct descendant of the same building block, just with the spelling settled.