A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1375, 1531, 1629-1646
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Softnes, -nesse, n. [ME (Layamon) and e.m.E. soft(e)nes(se, e.m.E. also saftnesse (1545); Soft adj.] Mildness; pusillanimity, weakness; gentleness, absence of firmness or harshness of character; absence of hardness or rigidity in texture or composition. —(1) 1375 Barb. xvi 66.
Quhen byrdis syngis … For softnes of the suet sesoun —(2) 1531 Bell. Boece II 493.
Quhidder the same procedit be softnes of his mind … that he couth nocht punis the iniquiteis of his sonnis for the fervent luf and affection he had to thame 1629 The Scotish Souldier 159 in Fugitive Poetry I.
For that softnesse mignard youthes affect —(3) 1646 J. Hope Diary (1958) 178.
All I could perceave was in some places only some softnes with balles of a mangrell nature betuixt that of the stonne and that of the metall
