[f. CALM a. + -NESS.] The state or quality of being calm; stillness, tranquillity, quietness.
a. orig. Absence of wind: now CALM.
1516. Pynson, Life St. Birgette, 58. There arose anon suche a great calmenes that in a lytell smalle Bote they came … to londe.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke viii. 24 (R.). Immediately shall the tempeste be tourned into calmnesse.
b. Stillness of the sea or other surface of water, of the atmosphere, or general aspect of nature.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 40. Calmenesse or quietnesse of the sea.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. i. 9. The sea was returned to its … settled calmness.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 16. 106. The calmness was perfect.
c. transf. and fig. Of the mind, feelings or demeanor; of conditions and circumstances, etc.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. ii. (1634), 513. The Church in calmenesse of time appeareth quiet and free.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxii. § 18. Calmness of speech.
1699. Luttrell, Brief Rel., IV. 538. From Poland, that the dyet goes on with calmnesse.
1823. Lamb, Elia (1860), 153. The Quakers go about their business … with more calmness than we.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 283. They were haunted … by the almost rigid calmness of his features.
