Noah Webster
Earnestness
EARNESTNESS, noun ern'estness. Ardor or zeal in the pursuit of any thing; eagerness; animated desire; as, to seek or ask with earnestness; to engage in a work with earnestness
1. Anxious care; solicitude; intenseness of desire.
2. Fixed desire or attention; seriousness; as, the charge was maintained with a show of gravity and earnestness