Legal Writing

?Gratitude? or ?Gratefulness??

By Maeve Maddox

Lauren writes:

I have searched the internet for the answer to this, but I cannot find it: What is the difference between ‘gratitude’ and ‘gratefulness’ if any.

Both Merriam-Webster and the OED treat the words as synonyms:

Merriam-Webster:
gratitude: the state of being grateful
gratefulness: : the quality or state of being grateful

OED:
gratitude: The quality or condition of being grateful
gratefulness: The quality of being grateful

The abstract noun gratitude comes from Medieval Latin gratitudo, “thankfulness.”

The adjective grateful comes from an obsolete adjective grate, “agreeable, thankful,” which came from a Latin adjective, gratus, “pleasing.” Gratefulness is an abstract noun formed by adding the suffix -ness to grateful.

Personally, I prefer gratitude to gratefulness because I don’t like using -ness abstract nouns when a form without -ness is available and suits the context.

Here are some examples of what seem to me to be unnecessary -ness formations, together with the words that can be used instead:

anxiousness / anxiety
amiableness / amiability
animatedness / animation
determinedness / determination
coolness / cool (when the sense is “not warm” : in the cool of the evening)
fanaticalness / fanaticism
falseness / falsity
moistness / moisture
ostentatiousness / ostentation
poorness / poverty (when the sense is “lack of wealth”)
stupidness / stupidity
tiredness / fatigue

Bottom line: Gratitude and gratefulness mean the same thing. Which to use is a matter of stylistic choice.

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on June 18, 2010 (boomark / email).