earnestness

In context

Here: Intense seriousness and sincerity of purpose; a grave, wholehearted intent that is the opposite of flippancy or half-measures. In the Big Book it names both the deadly seriousness beneath the fellowship's levity (p.16) and the wholehearted effort the authors plead for in taking the Steps (p.58).

For a reader in 1939 earnestness was the plain noun for being earnest, and the dictionaries of the day agree on its core. Webster's Collegiate (5th ed., 1939 printing) defines earnest as "An aroused and intent mental state" and, as an adjective, "Characterized by, or proceeding from, an intense and serious state of mind; not flippant." Its synonym note adds that "Earnest implies tempered or restrained eagerness; it always connotes sincerity," and lists as antonyms "Insincere, trifling, playful, frivolous." The Collegiate lists earnestness only as a run-on form and gives no separate definition. The 1923 New International does the same, saying only "See -NESS." Webster's Revised Unabridged (1913) gives "The state or quality of being earnest; intentness; anxiety," and Webster's 1828 gives "Ardor or zeal in the pursuit of any thing; eagerness; animated desire," with a second sense of "Anxious care; solicitude; intenseness of desire" and "Fixed desire or attention; seriousness." So the word carried two strands at once, zeal and eagerness on one side, grave sincerity on the other. The older dictionaries also keep a trace of worry ("anxiety", "solicitude") that the 1939 Collegiate has dropped.

The word has narrowed little since, but its tone has cooled. Today WordNet and Wiktionary define it as "the trait of being serious" and "sincerity; seriousness". In casual use it can now be faintly mocking, suggesting someone a bit too solemn or naive. That tone is nearly absent from the 1939 dictionaries, which treat earnest as a plain virtue, the opposite of the trifling and the frivolous. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces the word to Old English eornoste and eornost, "seriousness, serious intent", and notes that the name Ernest literally means "earnestness". It also keeps this adjective apart from the unrelated noun earnest, a pledge or down payment.

That era's sense brings out the force of the Big Book's uses. In "deadly earnestness" the weight falls on life-and-death seriousness beneath the humor, and the Collegiate's "not flippant" and "not trifling" are exactly what the authors insist is underneath the levity. In the plea to be "fearless and thorough" "with all the earnestness at our command", the word means sincere, wholehearted, unhedged effort, the reverse of the "easier, softer way" just refused. Even Dr. Bob's "much greater earnestness" in drinking is the same sense turned to a bad end, with intent and zeal and no flippancy. The dictionaries here do not settle whether the 1939 reader heard any religious overtone in the word, so I do not claim one.

Usages

• BB p.16 ¶2 “just underneath there is deadly earnestness”
• BB p.37 ¶2 “in all earnestness and sincerity”
• BB p.58 ¶3 “With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start.”
• BB p.173 ¶1 “much greater earnestness than I had previously shown”
• “An honest earnestness in the young man's manner.” — Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
• “to seek or ask with earnestness” — Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
• She came to the first meeting with real earnestness, ready to do whatever she was asked. illustration, written for this note
• His jokes were easy, but his earnestness showed when he spoke of the men who had not made it. illustration, written for this note
• They asked for help in all earnestness, with no pretense left. illustration, written for this note

Written by Claude (sonnet) from the dictionaries and passages of the lookup; every quotation in it was checked against them, and what could not be found was left out. A study aid, not a source.

The dictionaries of 1939

Webster's New International Dictionary (1923 printing)

Show the entry image

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

WordNet 3.0 (Princeton, 2006)

In the Book 5

Alcoholics Anonymous 4

• BB p.16 ¶2 …I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish.
• BB p.37 ¶2 …sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out. Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened.
• BB p.58 ¶3 At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold…

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions 1

• 12&12 p.103 ¶2 This can be done, but it has hazards. We have seen A.A.’s ask with much earnestness and faith for God’s explicit guidance on matters ranging all the way from a shattering domestic or financial…