hardhandednessEtymologyFrom hardhanded + -ness.nounHarshness, strictness.“Well-to-do citizens, both Reformed and Catholic, also backed down and withdrew their demands, forming a united front to suppress the revolt in the cities, either through hardhandedness or appeasement.”The embodiment of working-class virtue; hard-working practicality.“Coming in among us by hundreds and thousands, as they now are and for years have been, their gentler and fiercer passions, like meadow rivulets and mountain torrents, mixing in with and modifying our own, and their art, science and literature, their hardhandedness and willingheartedness, and their experiences of life generally, giving to and receiving from ours new impulses and new directions, the”