roughnessn.
/ˈrʌfnəs/, U.S. /ˈrəfnəs/ 1.
a. The quality of being rough in texture, esp. to the touch; (also) concrete the rough part of something.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > [noun] > roughness
rowa1250
horror1382
roughnessa1398
ruggishness?1541
unsmoothness1598
scabredity1624
squalora1637
scabrosity1657
scabridity1870
scragginess1885
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [noun]
roughnessa1398
beggarliness1542
crabbedness1546
barbarousness1549
grossness1563
rusticity1565
barbarism1578
inconcinnity1616
ungracefulness1658
incuriosity1661
incomptness1669
uncouthness1672
unpoliteness1684
barbarity1706
inelegance1726
inelegancy1727
scabrousness1727
asperity1779
crudity1885
ineloquence1894
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 32 Contrarye humours worchiþ contrarines..with roghnes [L. cum asperitate] in þe vttir partie of þe body.
1495 Trevisa's Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) iv. iii. 82 Roughnesse is not elles but an vneuynnesse in an harde thynge.
1572 J. Bossewell Wks. Armorie ii. f. 61 A beaste so called for the roughnesse and sharpenesse of his prickes.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 29v Cattell can not away with it, for the sharpenesse and ruffenesse of the eares.
1589 A. Fleming tr. Virgil Georgiks iv. 69 in A. Fleming tr. Virgil Bucoliks Towels with nap shorne off (The floow or roughnes shorne away for feare to hurt his handes).
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xiii. xii The roughnesse of Paper is pollished and smoothed either with some tooth, or els with a Porcellane shell.
1649 J. Milton Observations in Articles of Peace with Irish Rebels 57 For that hairy roughnesse assum'd won Jacob the Birthright both Temporall and Eternall.
?1711 J. Petiver Gazophylacii X. Table 92 Urchin Mushroom:..From its roughness underneath.
1787 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 2) I. vi. 412 Leaf-stalks hairy underneath, with a slight roughness to the touch.
1846 W. Greener Sci. Gunnery (new ed.) 275 This roughness..answers the same as friction by relief.
1916 M. W. Calkins Introd. Psychol. i. iv. 56 Degrees of roughness, smoothness, hardness and softness.
1955 K. Hutton & A. Swallow Chem. for Gen. Sci. i. 2 The ‘feel’ of a substance is made up of a number of sensations—temperature, wetness, roughness, hardness, etc.
2002 Woodworker Aug. 37/2 I used a belt sander and a random orbit sander..to remove the bulk of the roughness.
b. An instance of this; a rough place or part; a rough aspect or characteristic. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > [noun] > roughness > rough part, object, or feature
roughOE
ragged?c1225
roughnessa1398
ruba1616
asperity1662
chicken skin1897
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 321v Colde makeþ many roughnesses in moiste water, byndynge and drawynge þe vtter parties to þe myddel and lettynge þe þynne partyes to sprede hemself outward.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde ii. ii. f. 58 Whiche rowghnes or reflowinge, the Spanyardes caule Resacca.
1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar iii. xiv. 13 Repentance..like a mattock and spade breaks away all the roughnesses of the passage.
1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 151 Those thick roughnesses that sence beholds them with.
1747 Gentleman's Mag. May 209/1 To call these scabbed roughnesses scales..is a great inaccuracy.
a1774 O. Goldsmith Surv. Exper. Philos. (1776) II. 192 The resined bow..being drawn along a string, its roughnesses catch the string at very small intervals.
1823 H. Humphrey Addr. Collegiate Inst. Amherst 7 The culture and discipline of education..smooths and polishes the roughnesses of his nature.
1845 P. Barlow Manuf. in Encycl. Metrop. VIII. 664/2 The threads..remove every roughness and inequality from the inside of the barrel.
1890 Cent. Dict. at Orange Orange-skin surface, a name given to the glaze of certain varieties of Oriental porcelain, from the slight roughnesses of the surface, without reference to color.
1917 W. L. Webb Railroad Constr. (rev. ed.) xv. 446 The jar and vibration caused by a roughness in the track is..reduced.
1996 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 9 Oct. 26 The S40 copes easily with a succession of humps and dips, but picks up all the little road surface roughnesses.
2002 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 14 Feb. (Features section) 16 First-night roughnesses will surely be ironed out.
c. Ruggedness or brokenness (of ground); an instance of this. Also in figurative contexts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > ground > [noun] > rough > condition of being
roughness1555
ruggedness1592
brokennessa1856
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 129 A lake or standynge poole inaccessible,..by reason of the roughnesse of the montaines.
1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. xv. 16 By reason..of the roughnesse of the place being ful of rocks.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xxiv. sig. N5v A Hill almost vn-ascendable, by the roughnesse of a craggy way.
1686 tr. J. Chardin Trav. Persia 341 By reason of the Roughness and Height of the Mountaines.
1737 H. Baker tr. Virgil in Medulla Poetarum Romanorum II. 507 Nature..Stood boggling at the Roughness of the Way,..Goes boldly on, and loves the Path when worn.
1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 247 They..From such communion..Feel less the journey's roughness and its length.
1804 J. Pinkerton Mod. Geogr. (new ed.) I. iv. 129 The rich roughness of an English prospect, diversified with an abundance of wood,..is in Scotland rarely visible.
1878 R. Browning La Saisiaz 45 If Roughness of the long rock-clamber lead not to the last of cliff.
1922 H. R. Haggard Virgin of Sun i. ii. 39 I waited,..hoping that the roughness of the ground would cause him to stumble.
1978 Nature 8 June 456/1 The commonly used methods of calculating basal sliding of glaciers over surfaces of varying roughnesses.
2000 C. D. Whiteman Mountain Meteorol. v. 71 The effect of frictional drag on wind speed varies depending on the roughness of the terrain.
d. Bacteriology. The quality of bacteria of being rough (rough adj. 5).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > bacterium > [noun] > specific quality of
lysogenesis1901
roughness1925
lysogenicity1932
lysogeny1956
1925 W. G. Savage & P. B. White Investig. Salmonella Group 58 The degree of alteration in serological character varies independently of the amount of colonial roughness and saline stability possessed by the variant.
1960 L. Picken Organization of Cells iii. 63 The roughness expresses itself in the formation of dry, membranous, or brittle colonies, with irregular margins and corrugated surface, and a granular appearance under the microscope.
2005 D. Lloyd in A. Hillier et al. Adv. Vet. Dermatol. V. 325/2 The roughness of the colonies may enhance attachment.
2. Harshness, unpleasantness, or crudeness (of sound, taste, colour, etc.); inelegance (of diction, speech, etc.); an instance of this.In quot. a13981: hoarseness of voice.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > [noun]
simplessea1393
roughnessa1398
rudenessc1405
unrefinedness1607
simpleness1648
unpolishedness1652
unpoliteness1700
sordidness1704
ungenteelness1706
indelicacy1712
unrefinement1769
ungentility1822
unprinceliness1855
outbackery1961
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 49v Rouȝnesse [L. asperitatem] of voyce þat comeþ of drynes of ayer.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 244 Þe sauour þerof is bytyng and somdel sour..þey beþ nouȝt ful goode to ete for powȝnes [read rowȝnes] þat is y-hud wiþinne.
1550 T. Nicolls tr. L. Valla in tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War f. xiiii Herodotus, goeth forwarde all playne and easy wythout any roughnes, as a ryuer, that ronneth swetely all hole together.
1579 E. K. in E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Ep. Ded. Now,..for al the compasse of the speach, it is round without roughnesse, and learned without hardnes.
1675 A. Browne Ars Pictoria (ed. 2) App. 10 Let not the Roughness of the Colour discourage you from proceeding, for that is to be wrought down.
1697 J. Dryden Ded. Æneis in tr. Virgil Wks. sig. e1 Wherever that [sc. the cæsura] is us'd, it gives a roughness to the Verse, of which we can have little need, in a Language which is over-stock'd with Consonants.
1740 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (new ed.) at Wine The coarse Wines of Moravia,..by reason of their great Austerity and Roughness.
1762 Ld. Kames Elements Crit. II. xviii. 243 The emotion raised by the length or shortness, the roughness or smoothness, of the sound.
1818 J. Keats Endymion ii. 91 O dearth Of human words! roughness of mortal speech.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 843 Roughness [of wines] is due to tannic acid.
1951 R. Postgate Life G. Lansbury xxi. 289 He..had a roughness of phrase..which he seemed at times actually to cultivate.
1963 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Post 6 Dec. 22 (advt.) Great flavor. Never harsh. All the roughness has been refined away.
2001 J. Le Fanu They don't know what's Wrong vii. 119 Humming..usually induces more relaxed phonation with a decrease in vocal roughness.
3. Harshness, abrasiveness, or severity of manner or behaviour.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > harshness or severity > [noun]
rethenesseOE
grimness971
sternhead1297
sharpnessa1325
reddoura1375
sternness1382
fiercenessc1384
sturdinessc1384
duressc1400
fellnessc1410
austeritya1425
harshnessc1480
roughness1530
severity1530
durity1543
ungentleness1548
severeness1579
ruggedness1638
atrocity1641
austereness1646
piquancya1677
Draconianism1819
astringency1823
Draconism1832
starkness1884
society > authority > strictness > [noun] > severity or sternness > specifically of tone or manner
roughness1530
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 264/1 Roughnesse, impetuosité, rudevr, rudesse.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Matt. xi. 50 b They that be not moued with austeritie and roughnes, be wonte to bee wonne by fayre speakyng and gentilnes.
1649 in E. Nicholas Papers (1886) I. 156 Sec. Nicholas..should come againe unto the King as before, but with much more roughnes and sharpnes.
1684 Bp. G. Burnet tr. T. More Utopia 113 Religion, notwithstanding its severity and roughness.
1740 S. Richardson Pamela I. 55 Having been crying, at his Roughness in the Entry, I turn'd away my Face.
?1790 Anecd. Little Family v. 53 The next morning..he took occasion to enlarge on the subject, though not with roughness and severity.
1812 Med. & Physical Jrnl. Feb. 141 Our author..seems to treat all authority with little deference, and often with a roughness and severity of language which might well be spared.
1868 Admission Reg. Manch. School (Chetham Soc.) II. 219 With all his occasional roughness of manner, or rather perhaps the appearance of it, no one could have a kinder or tenderer heart.
1909 J. R. Hall Bourbon Restoration ii. 39 Roughness of manner and a violent temper were natural to him.
1998 R. Jordan Path of Daggers x. 253 Anger put a roughness in his voice that required some effort to force down.
4. Physical violence or aggression; ungentleness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [noun] > rough or violent treatment
rudessec1415
rudenessc1450
rudeshipc1450
foulnessa1470
roughness1542
pepper1820
pitch-and-tossa1839
stick1942
roughing1960
1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes ii. f. 211 An empier is ofte tymes by the sweord & by roughnesse purchaced or acquired, but the same not reteined.
1646 J. Howell Lustra Ludovici 1 His tender body was become black and blue with roughnesse of handling.
1770 J. Andrews Rev. Characters Principal Nations Europe II. 106 Who burst into his Apartment, and waked him with great Roughness and Violence, as he sat slumbering in a Chair.
1830 Pocket Mag. Classic & Polite Lit. Jan. 56 The poor man kissed its cherry lips with a fierce roughness, yet she shrunk not from him, but seemed to return his ardent embrace.
1862 S. Davidson Introd. Old Test. I. 469 Wild roughness, cruelty, revenge were common.
1918 Inst. Q. (Dept. Public Welfare Illinois) 9 74 The cans in which it [sc. milk] is delivered are not prepossessing. Whether they are worse depends upon the roughness with which they are cleaned at the dairy.
1962 Guardian 10 Dec. 4/1 The side was making headway on the strength of excessive roughness and other dubious tactics.
2009 D. Liss Devil's Company vi. 69 When Edgar answered I immediately had cause to regret the roughness with which I treated him. Not that marks of a severe thrashing upon his face gave me pain.
5. Storminess (of weather, the sea, etc.); inclemency.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > bad weather > [noun] > condition of
reighnessOE
distemperancec1374
distemperurea1387
sternnessa1387
intemperance?a1475
distemperature1531
intemperancy1540
roughness1545
crabbedness1546
intemperateness1555
inclemency1559
intemperature1570
untemperateness1577
foulness1581
distemperment1582
distemper1614
unkindliness1625
1545 R. Ascham Toxophilus i. f. 15 The..winter, for the roughnesse of it, is cleane taken away from shoting.
1553 R. Eden tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India sig. Gvv Partly enforsed by roughnes of the sea.
1600 E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 274 They made great reckoning of the roughnes of the sea.
1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. J. L. G. de Balzac Lett. 351 The roughnesse of the season..makes mee over apprehensive to stirre out of my Chamber.
1732 E. Boyd Happy-unfortunate 325 The Roughness of the Weather, and the thorough Fright had seiz'd so fatally, that she was taken dangerously ill.
1771 D. Henry Compl. Eng. Farmer xxii. 369 When the plants begin to spindle, they should be moulded up..to strengthen them in the ground against the roughness of the wind.
1831 J. A. St. John Lives Celebrated Travellers I. 99 They..proceeded on their way, as swiftly as the darkness of the night and the roughness of the weather would permit.
1868 E. D. E. N. Southworth Fair Play xix. 286 The boat's crew labored on through..the beating of the wind and the roughness of the sea.
1909 Chatterbox 314/2 The roughness of the waves, makes it impossible for many persons to bathe in the sea.
2000 C. D. Whiteman Mountain Meteorol. x. 143 Storms that form..on the eastern shorelines of the Great Lakes result from the abrupt increase in roughness encountered by the prevailing westerly winds.
6. Coarseness or ruggedness of character or manners; lack of politeness or refinement.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > [noun] > unmannerliness > unrefined manners or behaviour
villainyc1340
churlhood1382
rudenessc1405
boistousness1526
uplandishness1530
rusticity1531
coarseness1541
loutishnessa1556
grossness1563
boorishness1570
rusticality1572
clownishness1576
bouerie1577
roughness1581
clownery1589
swinishness1591
peasantryc1592
inurbanity1598
community1600
rusticalnessa1603
clownagea1637
wildness1639
vulgarness1642
unpolishedness1652
brutism1687
mismanners1697
unpoliteness1700
brutality1709
mechanicism1710
indelicacy1712
untameness1727
vulgarism1749
vulgaritya1774
shag1785
piggishness1796
cubbishness1828
sylvanity1832
rusticness1838
plebeianness1840
swainishness1854
baboonery1857
yahooism1862
slanginess1865
bucolicism1879
vulgarianism1920
outbackery1961
yobbishness1969
ockerism1974
blokeishness1989
1581 A. Fleming Diamond of Deuotion 47 No man of himselfe can streighten his crookednes, plaine his roughnes, soften his hardnes, sweeten his sowrenes, [etc.].
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 93 This is a fellow who hauing beene praysd For bluntnes doth affect a sawcy ruffines [1623 roughnes].
1683 D. A. Whole Art Converse Pref. The Citizens of Edenborough have laid down the greatest part of their former Roughness.
1747 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. I. 14 He was..well qualified by these talents to polish the roughness of the people he was to govern.
1785 W. Cowper Task v. 480 What were left of roughness in the grain Of British natures, wanting its excuse That it belongs to freemen, would disgust And shock me.
1818 H. Hallam View Europe Middle Ages II. vii. 115 With all the national roughness and honesty.
1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate I. iii. 57 With something of the promised roughness of the farmer.
1908 R. Bagot Anthony Cuthbert vi. 50 With all her apparent roughness of disposition..she was by no means a heartless woman.
1971 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Dec. 1622/1 The Rousseauian belief that poverty and roughness are closer to nature than austerity and civilized habits.
2006 C. Norris et al. Justice Riders v. 66 For all his roughness, Shaun O'Banyon possessed a certain gentleness, a kindness that exuded through his confident gaze.
7. Scottish, English regional (northern), and Irish English. A good or sufficient quantity (of something).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > wealth > wealth or riches > [noun] > in a rough kind of way
roughness1803
1803 Anderson's Cumb. Ball. 55 We've roughness amang hands, we've kye i' the byre.
1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. Roughness, full house-keeping; as, ‘There's ay a deal o' rouchness about yon house.’
1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down (at cited word) ‘There's a great roughness about his farm’, i.e. great plenty.
1929 M. Mulcaghey Ballymulcaghey 70 Yiz can have a brave roughness in the house.
1953 M. Traynor Eng. Dial. Donegal 236/1 I'll gie you some meal when there's a roughness.
1987 C. Reid Tea in China Shop 8 Always have a wee roughness of money about you when you're away from home.
8. regional. Chiefly U.S. (southern and south Midland). Fodder, hay, corn husks, etc., used to feed cattle or horses (as contrasted with grain). Cf. rough n.1 9b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > animal food > [noun] > fodder
fodderOE
foragec1315
provender1340
provend?a1400
foddering1430
feed1594
farrage1609
roughness1813
trough-meat1844
1813 J. Hartsell Jrnl. 29 Oct. in East Tennessee Hist. Soc. Publ. (1939) XI. 99 Did not draw aney rufness for our teeme.
1859 W. Dickinson Gloss. Words & Phrases Cumberland 93 Roughness,..grass left for winterage.
1872 M. S. De Vere Americanisms 536 Roughness in South Carolina denotes shucks or cornhusks, on account, probably, of the roughness of the serrated blades.
1891 Fur, Fin & Feather Mar. 185 Corn and ‘roughness’, which is the localism for fodder, are to be cheaply and conveniently obtained from the natives.
1938 J. Stuart Beyond Dark Hills iv. 88 We don't feed the cattle anything but roughness.
1966 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 22 Roughness, roughage: fodder, corntops, coarse hay.
Compounds
roughness length n. [translating German Linearabmessung der Rauhigkeiten (L. Prandtl 1932, in Beiträge zur Physik der Atmosphäre 19 190] Meteorology a parameter used in representing the variation of horizontal wind speed with height immediately above the ground (or water surface), and typically corresponding to the unevenness of the surface; also surface roughness length.
ΚΠ
1937 Q. Jrnl. Royal Meteorol. Soc. 63 105 z0 is the ‘roughness length’ of Prandtl.
1959 Adv. in Geophysics 35 48 The O'Neill terrain is short grass, with roughness length of about 0.7 cm.
1990 Sea: Ideas & Observ. IX. a. vii. 242 The wind excited air–sea interface may be anything from ultrasmooth to fully rough, having drag coefficients that may vary by an order of magnitude..and corresponding roughness lengths from 10−6 to 10 mm.
2008 Y. Shao Physics & Modelling Wind Erosion (ed. 2) iv. 109 Aerodynamic parameters, such as surface roughness length and zero-displacement height can be estimated from leaf-area index and vegetation height.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.a1398