[UN-1 12.] Unpleasantness.
1830. ‘Jon Bee,’ in Wks. S. Foote, IV. p. xli. It would have been well … if this were all the unpleasantry to which he subjected himself.
1844. Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, xvi. Had he allowed himself to be depressed by every unpleasantry, he would have had a sad time of it.
1847. De Quincey, in Tait’s Mag., XIV. 520. Without any ‘unpleasantries’ occurring. Ibid., Note. ‘Unpleasantries’ … is a new word, launched a very few years back in some commercial towns.
1883. Burton & Cameron, Gold Coast, I. i. 16. A very low barometer, which suggested unpleasantries.
