Fairness

[f. FAIR a. + -NESS.]

  1.  The quality or condition of being fair; beauty: a. in the abstract; also concr. something that is fair, a beautiful feature, an ornament.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 12253.

c. 1340.  Hampole, Prose Tr. (1866), 39. Thare es souerayne fairenes, lyghtenes, strenghe [etc.].

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xvii. (1495), 325. The mone is the fayrnes of the nyght.

1450–1530.  Myrr. our Ladye, 177. But other aungels abode with theyr charyte, in blysse prepared for them, whyche loued god feruently for his loue, beholdynge in hym all fayreness, all power, and all verteu.

1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. vii. 35. Persons of the greatest fancy, and such who are most pleased with outward fairnesses are most religious.

1856.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., III. IV. xvi. § 14. In the Middle Ages hardly anything but vice could be caricatured, because virtue was always visibly and personally noble: now virtue itself is apt to inhabit such poor human bodies, that no aspect of it is invulnerable to jest; and for all fairness we have to seek to the flowers, for all sublimity, to the hills.

  b.  of women.

a. 1050.  Liber Scintill, liii. (1889), 168. Leas gyfu & ydel ys fæʓernyss.

a. 1225.  St. Marher. (1862), 35. For ir feirnesse, þan ho bee comen of þrelle.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 47. Felyce hir fayrnesse fel hir al to sklaundre.

c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. vii. (1869), 4. I seygh a lady in my wey; of hire fairnesse she dide me ioye.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 63. In the whiche synne they fall communly by the reason of theyr fayrnes.

1624.  Heywood, Gunaik., IV. 164. The higher powers haue bestowed upon you fairenesse aboue man.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. iv. The print gives … some of her Flemish fairness.

1877.  Mrs. Forrester, Mignon, I. 54. And right royally she uses the prerogative of her fairness.

  c.  of men and children; rarely of animals. Obs. or arch.

a. 1000.  Lambeth Ps. xliv. 5 (Bosw.). Mid ðinum hiwe oððe wlite and fæʓernysse ðinre.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 77. Sunne and mone þostreþ for his fairnesse.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1233. Wantede ðit child faiernesse and miȝt.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 285. A woman … wedded a bocher for his fairenesse.

1401.  Political Poems (1859), II. 68.

1535.  Coverdale, Isa. liii. 2. When we loke vpon him, there shalbe no fayrnesse.

1608.  D. T., Ess. Pol. & Mor., 48. The beautie and fairenesse of his eyes.

1820.  Keats, Hyperion, III. 124.

  † d.  of inanimate things. Obs.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 7025.

c. 1325.  Prose Psalter, xlix. 12. Þe fairnes of þe felde is wyþ me.

c. 1400.  Cato’s Morals, 109. in Cursor M., App. iv.

c. 1511.  1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd., p. xxvii. This people goeth all naked. But the men and women haue on theyr heed, necke, Armes, Knees, and fete all with feders bounden for there bewtynes and fayrenes.

1583.  Hollyband, Campo di Fior, 305. I am not of opinion that any place can be found like to this in fairenesse.

1662.  C. Merret, trans. Neri’s Art of Glass, lxxxvi. A Violet colour of notable fairness.

1726.  Adv. Capt. R. Boyle, 9. I shew’d him the Money, and he soon knew the Piece to be his Wife’s from the particular Fairness of it, being the same he had some time ago given her for a Pocket-Piece.

  † e.  of speech. Obs.

c. 1490.  Promp. Parv., 146 (MS. K.). Fayirnesse of speche, facundia.

  2.  Of the complexion or skin: Lightness of color.

1599.  Hakluyt, Voy., II. 331. The whitenesse thereof [ivory] was … thought to represent the natural fairenesse of man’s skinne.

1796.  Morse, The American Universal Geography, II. 550. At court, however, the great families are ambitious of intermarrying with Persians and Tartars, on account of the fairness of their complexion, resembling that of their conqueror Tamerlane and his great generals.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xv. As he unloosed the leathern jacket from his neck and shoulders, the manly and muscular form which they displayed, was not the more remarkable than the fairness of his skin, where it had not, as in hands and face, been exposed to the effects of rough weather, and of his laborious trade.

  3.  Equitableness, fair dealing, honesty, impartiality, uprightness.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., 195. It is best that we trete hym with farenes.

1722.  Wodrow Corr. (1843), II. 628. I hope fairness and truth were in mine eye.

1771.  Junius, Lett. xlvi. 245. No man … will dispute the fairness of this construction.

1802.  Med. Jrnl., VIII. 184. We do not doubt of the fairness of the statement.

1859.  Macaulay, Biog. (1867), 91. A show of fairness was … necessary to the prosperity of the Magazine.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. xcix. 387. The criticisms of an outspoken press rarely assail … their [English judges’] fairness.

  † 4.  Of the weather: The state of being free from storms or rain; fineness. Obs.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 146. Fayrnesse of wedur, amenitas.

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 37. Fairenesse of weather: quietnesse, serénitas.

1743.  Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 23. They were so cautious of any Thing being imbezzled, that they would not suffer the Boats to go off and work by Night, notwithstanding the Moon, Tides, and Fairness of Weather were more favourable to us by Night than Day.

  † 5.  Courtesy. Obs.

c. 1205.  Lay., 3272. Me vnder-feng þene king: mid mochele feirnusse.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1745. Feyne all with fairnes & fayne at þou may.

  † 6.  Gentleness; only in By, with fairness: by fair or gentle means. Obs.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, 519.

c. 1400.  Beryn, 1396. Let asay efft ageyn, with ffeirnes hym to chast.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, IX. lxxvii. Outher with fayrenes or foulnesse I shalle brynge hym to this courte.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 331. The king … will provyde some remedy for us, eyther by fayrenesse or otherwise.