Is there a...

...difference in nuance between

humility

and

humbleness?

I recently encountered "humbleness" in a translation of "The Brothers Karamazov" and thought it was a mistake. But it's in the dictionary. So is it exactly the same as "humility", the word I always thought was the only noun form of "humble"?

I can think of cases where you would use one and not the other. If you were speaking of a humble abode, you would talk about the humbleness of the abode, not its humility. But as applied to people they're pretty close.

That explanation makes sense. Thanks.

A poster on an ESL forum made a distinction (emphasis is his):
>'humbleness' is an (innate) state of being, where the person is meek and modest in their behaviour, attitude and spirit.

In contrast, you have a person who is proud, haughty and arrogant.

Now, if such a person where 'humbled' = taught a good lesson that he is not such an almighty important person, then he might reach a state of 'humility', which is: the quality of not being proud because you are aware of your bad qualities.

I don't buy it, nutrax.

I'm not sure I do either, especially the knowledge of your own defects part. But I think I might use humbleness to describe someone's general appearance or mien--analogous to your "humbleness of abode"--and humility to describe their character. e.g. I might use both humbleness and humility to describe the Dalai Lama, who lives very simply, and whose public persona is quiet and gentle. But I probably wouldn't use "humbleness" to describe, say, the Archbishop of Canterbury who may have great humility, but who generally reflects a different perspective.

The fact that they are the same is born out in Spanish. Noun - humilidad, adjective - humilde, verb - humillar. Just one word for both humbleness and humility, one for humble and humiliated and one for to humble and to humiliate.