fallownessn.
/ˈfaləʊnəs/, U.S. /ˈfæloʊnəs/ The state or fact of being fallow; (figurative) idleness, intellectual or artistic unproductiveness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > idleness, lack of occupation or activity > [noun]
idlea1000
idlenessc1000
emptinessOE
idlelaikc1175
idleheada1325
idleship1357
otiosity1483
idlehoodc1540
idleteth1584
idleset1591
fallownessa1594
vacantry1598
vacancy1615
lurgy1769
inanity1782
inoccupation1783
vacuity1817
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > land suitable for cultivation > [noun] > fallow land > state of being
fallow?1523
lair1602
fallowness1859
a1594 R. Greenham Godly Observ. xvi, in Wks. (1612) iv. 849 As there is fallownes of the land, so there is a fallownes of the heart.
a1631 J. Donne To Mr. R. Woodward in Poems (1633) 74 So affects my muse now, a chast fallownesse.
1799 R. Southey Let. 18 Oct. in Fragmentary Remains Sir H. Davy (1858) 40 The ground is very good, and has long been fattening in fallowness.
1859 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Aeneid vi, in tr. Virgil Wks. II. 114 Regions rife In thorns by fallowness.
1874 Presbyterian Q. & Princeton Rev. Jan. 76 The intellect and the moral sense are not toys.., but engines with which to work; not fields to rest in fallowness, but fertile soils, rich in all possibilities of harvest.
1906 N. Amer. Rev. 2 Nov. 209 Loafing may be an intellectual fallowness, a preparation for efficiency, or it may be animal laziness.
1987 U. Mai & H. Buchholt Peasant Pedlar iv. 33 There is a general decline in rice production, even with permanent fallowness of former rice-fields.
2009 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 17 Sept. 30 When I begin to write a scholarly book, I spend a nervously long period of time in utter fallowness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1594