Advertisement

loveliness (n.)

mid-14c., lufliness, "lovableness," from lovely + -ness. Original sense now obsolete; the meaning "exquisite beauty" is attested by c. 1600.

Entries related to loveliness

lovely (adj.)
Old English luflic "affectionate, loving; loveable;" see love (n.) + -ly (1). Sense of "lovable on account of beauty, attractive" is from c. 1300; in modern use "applied indiscriminately to all pleasing material objects, from a piece of plum-cake to a Gothic cathedral" [George P. Marsh, "The Origin and History of the English Language," 1862]. As an expression of delight, 1610s.
-ness 

word-forming element denoting action, quality, or state, attached to an adjective or past participle to form an abstract noun, from Old English -nes(s), from Proto-Germanic *in-assu- (cognates: Old Saxon -nissi, Middle Dutch -nisse, Dutch -nis, Old High German -nissa, German -nis, Gothic -inassus), from *-in-, originally belonging to the noun stem, + *-assu-, abstract noun suffix, probably from the same root as Latin -tudo (see -tude).

Others are reading

Advertisement
Advertisement
Definitions of loveliness

loveliness (n.)
the quality of being good looking and attractive;
Synonyms: comeliness / fairness / beauteousness
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near loveliness

love-knot

Lovelace

loveless

love-letter

lovelily

loveliness

love-longing

love-lorn

lovely

love-making

lover

© 2001-2021 Douglas Harper