hardihood

Definition

Unyielding boldness and daring; firmness in doing something that exposes one to difficulty, danger, or calamity; intrepidness.

Etymology

From hardy + -hood. Compare Dutch hardigheid (“hardness, callousness”), German Hartigkeit (“hardness”).

Example Sentences

• "[…] he came to impart other news; to prepare the Earl for death; for the morrow was appointed for his execution. He received the intelligence with the firm hardihood of indignant virtue, disdaining to solicit, and disdaining to repine […]"
• "Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world."
• "Once endured it is enjoyed as my owndom. Elsewhere I refer to this process of enduring hardship as the only possible source of hardihood."