Also 5 suavitee, 6 -ite, -yte, 6–7 -itie. [ad. L. suāvitās (partly through F. suavité), f. suāvis: see SUAVE and -ITY.]
† 1. Sweetness or agreeableness to the senses; esp. sweetness (of taste), fragrance (of odor). Obs.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun (1888), 144. There, is alle suavitee delitable to touching.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 3372. Suche a suauite and fragrant odoure Ascended from the corps. Ibid., II. 1907. O redolent rose repleit with suauite.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VII. vii. 351. Rachel … desired them [sc. mandrakes] for rarity, pulchritude or suavity.
1658. R. White, trans. Digby’s Powd. Symp. (1660), 51. The smell of beans … is a smell that hath a suavity with it.
1661. Boyle, Style Script., 253. Of both their Suavities [viz. of God’s word and of honey], Experience gives much Adventageouser Notions than Descriptions can.
† b. Sweetness (of sound, harmony, expression).
1614. J. Davies, Commend. Poems (1878), 10/1. Musickes haters haue no Forme, or Soule: For, had they Soules produc’t in Harmony, They would be rauisht with her Suauity.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1655), II. lviii. 78. Touching her [sc. the Greek tongue’s] degeneration from her primitive suavity and elegance.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. 296. Plato does … very much commend the Orphick Hymns, for their Suavity and Deliciousness.
a. 1821. V. Knox, Ess., cv. Wks. 1824, I. 517. I know not whether the curiosa felicitas … may not be said to consist in delicacy of sentiment and suavity of expression.
2. Pleasurableness, agreeableness; pl. delights, amenities. Now only as colored by sense 4.
1594. Nashe, Terrors of Night, Wks. (Grosart), III. 268. One … who in the midst of his paine falls delighted asleeps, and in that suauitie of slumber surrenders the ghost.
1619. Hales, Gold. Rem., II. (1673), 63. The suavity of their Doctrine in the word Peace and Good things.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., II. lix. (1674), 211. To taste the sweet of Government, the suavity of Command.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. III. i. 18. The delights or suavities, which attend the teachings of Poesie.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 63. The common suavities of social life.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., vi. The elegances and suavities of life.
† b. A state of sweet calm in the soul when specially favored by God; pl. feelings of spiritual sweetness or delight. Obs.
[c. 1610. Women Saints, 55. Her bodie yielding a most fragrant odour … a greate token of her ghostlie suauitie.]
a. 1617. P. Bayne, Chr. Lett. (1620), L 8. I thanke God in Christ, sustentation I haue,… but suauities spirituall I taste not any.
1648. Boyle, Motives Love of God (1659), 52. The unimaginable suavity, that the fixing of ones Love on God, is able to blesse the Soul with.
1671. Woodhead, St. Teresa, I. xv. 93. That, which the Soul is to do … is only to rest with suavity, and without noyse.
a. 1680. Glanvill, Some Disc., i. (1681), 55. The conceit of our special dearness to God … that goes no further than to some suavities, and pleasant fancies within our selves.
† 3. Graciousness; sweetness of manner or treatment. Obs.
1508. Fisher, 7 Penit. Ps., Wks. (1876), 248. Suauis dominus vniuersis … In euery thynge that god dooth is suauyte.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, IV. Oracle (1647), 297. Mild-smiling Cupid’s there, with lively looks and amorous suavitie.
a. 1649. in N. & Q., Ser. I. X. 357. Suavitie, or sweetnes of carriage, is a wynning quality.
4. The quality or condition of being suave in manner or outward behavior; bland agreeableness or urbanity.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 252. Histories … which uniformly tend to inculcate suavity of manners.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxix. ‘Lucy, my love,’ she added, with that singular combination of suavity of tone and pointed energy which we have already noticed.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxix. These words, delivered with a cutting suavity.
1878. Black, Green Past., iii. Sometimes a flash of vehement enthusiasm … would break through that suavity of manner which some considered to be just a trifle too supercilious.
b. pl. Suave actions.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., viii. Cajoled by the attentions of an electioneering politician with more ease than Aunt Chloe was won over by Master Sam’s suavities.
