-ness

ness Ness English Alternative forms en -nesse obsolete en ⠰⠎ Braille Etymology en state of being :inh enm:-nesse<id:-ness> 1 From en enm -nes, enm -nesse, from en ang -nis, ang -nes, from en gmw-pro *-nassī, from en gem-pro *-inassuz. This suffix was formed already in Proto-Germanic by false division of the final consonant gem-pro *-n- of the preceding stem + the actual suffix gem-pro *-assuz. The latter was in turn derived from an earlier gem-pro *-at(s)-tuz, from the verbal suffix gem-pro *-atjaną *-at-janą + the noun suffix gem-pro *-þuz. Compare de -nis and nl -nis of the same origin. Pronunciation en /nəs/ UK en /nɪs/ old-fashioned RP obsolete or dialectal en /nɛs/ en LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl--ness.wav Southern England en /nɪs/ /nəs/ GA,CA en /nəs/ [nɘs] NZ Suffix ~ Appended in general, often informally, stylistically, or jocularly, for reification of an attribute. 1865 Lewis Carrol: Alice in Wonderland; CHAPTER VII: A Mad Tea-Party. You know you say things are "much of a muchness.." — did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness! 1942 Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, N.Y.) Journal of the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, Volume 8, Part 2 p.515 The adrenocortical carcinoma symptoms ... are moonface, abdominousness, high blood pressure, hirsutes, pink striae, plethora, decaleification, irrespective of sex... 1948 Helen A. Archdale, Margaret Haig Thomas Mackworth: Time & Tide - Volume 29 - Page 407 The Czech people and countryside of Mr Lukas' camera are universal. In the aged peasants there is none of that wrinkled, ham, old gafferishness to which we have become accustomed by clever photography, but there is the feel of the earth by which these people have lived... Appended to adjectives to form nouns meaning "the state of being (the adjective)", "the quality of being (the adjective)", or "the measure of being (the adjective)". en calm calmness en eerie eeriness en kind kindness en one oneness Appended to words of other parts of speech to form nouns (often nonce words or terms in philosophy) meaning the state/quality/measure of the idea represented by these words. en that thatness en tree treeness en thug thugness Usage notes If an adjective ends in -y, then this changes to -i- when -ness is suffixed. This occurs both when the -y is the suffix en -y having the quality of, as in en mess → en messy → en messiness (hence -y → en -i-), but also in other cases, as in en comely → en comeliness. It does not, however, usually occur when the -y is part of the root, as in en spry → en spryness. Plurals are formed by adding -es, e.g. happiness → happinesses. Synonyms en -dom -hood -ship -itude -th -ity -ism -ability -ibility -icity -osity Derived terms en Translations appended to adjectives to form nouns meaning "the state of being...", "the quality of being...", or "the measure of being..." Arabic: ar ـِيَّة, several internal vowel patterns are used Armenian: hy -ություն Azerbaijani: az -lik Burmese: my -ခြင်း, my -မှု Chinese: Mandarin: used most frequently in loanwords, as many adjectives may be used as nouns in Chinese cmn 性 -性 xìng Czech: cs -ost f Danish: da -hed, da -skab Dutch: nl -heid, nl -schap, nl -nis Esperanto: eo -eco Faroese: fo -semi f n, fo -heit f Finnish: fi -uus, fi -yys, fi -us, fi -ys French: fr -ité, fr -esse f Frisian: West Frisian: fy -ens, fy -heid, fy -skip Galician: gl -idade f Georgian: ka სი- -ე, ka -ობა, ka -ება German: de -nis, de -heit, de -keit Greek: el -ότητα Greenlandic: kl -ssuseq Hebrew: he ־וּת f -út Hindi: hi -ई f Hungarian: hu -ság/hu -ség Icelandic: is -ð f, is -d f, is -t f Ido: io -eso Indonesian: id ke- -an Interlingua: ia -itate, ia -tate, ia -ia, ia -essa, ia -itude, ia -ismo Irish: ga -acht f Italian: it -ità, it -ezza Japanese: ja さ -さ -sa, ja 性 -性 -sei, 0 ending on -な adjectives Khmer: km ភាព, km សេចក្តី Korean: ko ㅁ Lao: lo Latin: la -tās f Macedonian: mk -ност f, mk -ост f, mk -ство n Malay: ms ke- -an Manx: gv -aght f Marathi: mr -पणा m Norwegian: no -skap Bokmål: nb -het Nynorsk: nn -leik, nn -heit Old English: ang -nes Old Norse: non -naðr, non -skapr Old Saxon: osx -nessi Polish: pl -ość f, pl -stwo n Portuguese: pt -idade f, pt -eza f, pt -ez f, pt -idão f Romani: rom -ipen m Romanian: ro -itate f, ro -tate f, ro -ătate f Russian: ru -ность, ru -ость, ru -ство, ru -щи́на f Sanskrit: sa -ईय Slovak: sk -osť f Spanish: es -idad Swahili: sw u- Swedish: sv -het, sv -skap Tagalog: tl ka- -an Tamil: ta -மை Telugu: te -తనము Thai: th ความ, th ภาพ pâap Turkish: tr -lık, tr -lik, tr -luk, tr -lük Ottoman Turkish: ota ـلق -lık, ota ـلك -lik Ukrainian: uk -ість f, uk -ство Vietnamese: vi sự, vi nỗi, vi niềm Welsh: cy -rwydd Yiddish: yi ־ניש n, yi ־קייט, yi ־הייט Zazaki: zza -ey, zza -iye, zza -in Anagrams en enss sens NSSE ENSs SNES SE SN ESNs Sens. Sens en productive suffixes Middle English Suffix enm suffix 1 enm -nesse Old English Pronunciation -ness Suffix f ang -nes: en -ness; forms abstract nouns Declension -ness References -ness 055882 Scots Alternative forms sco -nes Etymology From sco enm -nes, enm -nesse, from sco ang -nis, ang -nes, from sco gmw-pro *-nassī. Suffix sco suffix Affixed to adjectives to form abstract nouns which denote a quality, state or condition.