Towghnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Strength and firmness that make a material or person hard to break, bend or defeat
2. The sturdy, resilient quality of something that withstands stress, wear or force without giving way
3. Hardiness and durability in a thing or person, the capacity to endure hardship and resist damage

Etymology: Before it was spelled "toughness," this word was often written "towghnesse," with the "gh" standing for a sound that English speakers have since lost. That sound was a throaty fricative, like the "ch" in Scottish "loch," and the spelling preserved it long after speech had dropped it. The "gh" in "tough" follows the same pattern. The word is a compound of "tough" and the suffix "-ness," which English has used since Old English to turn adjectives into nouns of quality. "Tough" comes from Old English "tōh," meaning tenacious or hard to break, and it has cognates in German "zäh," which carries the same sense. Adding "-ness" gave a noun for the quality of being tough, and the spelling variant "towghnesse" shows how medieval scribes tried to record the older pronunciation.