naturalnessn.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 29^v Of naturalnez [?c1425 Paris kyndelynesse; L. naturalitate] of nutricioun, he said to be made spinam, i. verray herisipile.

1577 Hill's Gardeners Labyrinth 43 Florentinus (a Greeke wryter of husbandrye) cunninglye vttereth, that the naturalnesse of the grounde, the clemencie of heauen, [etc.]..procureth that the seeds being bestowed in the grounde, doe eyther speedyer, or later shoote vp into plantes.

1651 Perfect Diurnall No. 66. 897 Judge Nichols..[affirmed] the justnesse of this present Government, which he made cleare from the naturalnesse of it, the people being governed by their owne Representatives.

1664 N. Ingelo Bentivolio & Urania: 2nd Pt. vi. 372 This is no argument against the Immortality of the Soul, or the Naturalness of those Desires which we have of it.

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 140 The very facility and naturalness of every correction will be next to a Demonstration.

1817 S. T. Coleridge Blessed are ye that Sow Introd. p. xi The naturalness of doing as others do.

1873 H. Spencer Study Sociol. (1877) vi. 133 Those connexions..are not necessary, and often have no particular naturalness.

1931 A. L. Rowse Politics & Younger Generation 234 The ‘naturalness’ of inequality which we hear of so much.

1988 A. Walker Enemy Territory 77 This strange world of 1700 England has a naturalness and simplicity of behaviour not yet tainted by the enticement of big towns and the whims of fashionable society.

1624 H. Wotton Elements Archit. 95 The too much perfection of Albert Durer, and..also of Michael Angelo..that the German did too much express that which was; and the Italian, that which should be: which severe observation of Nature..must needs produce..more naturalnesse than gracefulnesse.

1669 A. Browne Ars Pictoria 18 The like Disgrace happened to Zeuxes by the Naturaleness of his Grapes.

1695 J. Dryden in tr. C. A. Du Fresnoy De Arte Graphica Pref. p. xiii In the naturalness (if I may so call it) of the Eye-brows.

1882 M. F. Tupper Wallace's Creel Pref. p. v The minor circumstances and characters are necessarily of a more imaginative kind, but these have (it is hoped) in each case a suitable naturalness and verisimilitude.

1943 D. G. Fink Television Standards & Pract. iv. 76 What is the lowest field frequency that will result in naturalness, smoothness, and nonjumpiness..in the picture?

1993 Art Newspaper Apr. 24/5 Outstanding in the present group are two gold rings, one of which depicts a two-horse chariot with driver in raised relief engraved with superb naturalness.

2001 Argument & Advocacy (Electronic ed.) 1 Jan. 133 It constructs the world..in a way that fiction never can—by appealing to a set of conventions that highlight realism and naturalness while at the same time masking their own construction.

1966 V. C. Lewis Bird Recognition (Booklet accompanying records of birdsong) III. 3/1 The recordist of the ‘songs’ and ‘calls’ illustrated herewith is of the opinion that the use of sound concentrators..tends to detract from the ‘naturalness’ of the recorded sounds.

1991 New Yorker 21 Oct. 11 (advt.) With our patented waveguide technology, you will experience naturalness, clarity and deep bass associated with large, expensive, high fidelity stereo systems.

1991 P. Copeland Sound Recordings (BNC) 20 Many of the most important milestones are in post-production techniques, rather than inherent improvements in the ‘naturalness’ of pure sound recording.

1656 W. Montagu tr. J. Du Bosc Accomplish'd Woman 111 Naturalnesse has so gentle charms, as none resists, because they arise from innocence.

1826 M. R. Mitford Our Village II. 241 Her own naturalness of character and simplicity of taste.

1836 T. Hook Gilbert Gurney III. 90 There seemed such a perfect naturalness—if I may use the word—about him.

1872 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) II. 372 He had room in his affections for the naturalness of the Elizabethan writers, and for the artificial epigram of the French school.

1918 A. G. Gardiner Leaves in Wind 94 The directness and naturalness of the American is the most enviable of his traits. It gives the sense of a man who is born free.

1983 W. Byron tr. A. Le Vot F. Scott Fitzgerald (1984) v. xiv. 224 Lois Moran impressed him with her freshness and naturalness.

a1719 J. Addison Dialogues Medals in Wks. (1721) I. ii. 485 The naturalness of the thought, and the beauty of the expression.

1815 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. 77 415 An appropriate talk, a living naturalness, (if we may make such a word,) that give them all a hold on the memory.

1873 P. G. Hamerton Intellect. Life iii. ix. 116 The perfect ease and naturalness of his diction.

1932 W. Lewis in Time & Tide 15 Oct. 1100/2 She is, in prose, concerned with a precious and affected—‘a poetical’—diction, and therefore she has never attempted the sort of ‘naturalness’ to which the fictionist is assumed to aspire.

1990 Internat. Rev. Appl. Linguistics 38 290 Naturalness is a term which can be used to describe the use of any variety of English. It is not an attribute of one, standard variety.