over-earnestnessn.
/ˌəʊvərˈəːnᵻs(t)nəs/, U.S. /ˌoʊvərˈərnəs(t)nəs/ The quality or state of being over-earnest.
ΚΠ
1821 J. Galt Ann. of Parish xxxvii. 298 Her greatest fault..was an over-earnestness to gather geer.
1886 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Over-earnestness, excess of earnestness.
1920 W. P. Trent Hist. Amer. Lit. xvii. 493 [Aspects of Whitman's style] are..effects of an inborn want of art, of a combination of overearnestness and underculture.
1990 O. Chadwick Michael Ramsey i. i. 34 This was not a person who bored everyone by overearnestness. On the contrary, he had a teasing humour, and a sarcasm which struck hard.
2002 Washington Post (Nexis) 25 May (Style section) c5 The evening suffered from dramatic excess and over-earnestness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1821- stipitiform
- stipple
- stipple artist
- stipple engraver
- stipple engraving
- stipple graver
- stipple plate
- stipple print
- stipple shading
- stipple-engraved
- stipple-paper
- stippled
- stippleengraved
- stipplepaper
- stippler
- stipplers
- stipples
- stippling
- stipplings
- stipply
- stipula
- stipulaceous
- stipulae
- stipulane
- stipulant