obsoletenessn.

1613 T. Jackson Eternall Truth Script. ii. xv. §6 The decay of Dialects, obsoletenesse of phrase..might breed some difficultie vnto posteritie.

1756 S. Johnson Proposals for printing Shakespeare 4 The reader is therefore embarrassed at once with dead and with foreign languages, with obsoleteness and innovation.

1758 J. Reed Madrigal & Trulletta i. i. 3 I am persuaded they cannot plead the obsoleteness of the word, since there are so many signal instances of the use and propriety of it, in and about this metropolis.

1817 N. Amer. Rev. Sept. 303 The negative reply, which generally succeeds, is not so much explained by the length of the poem—or the obsoleteness of the diction—..as by the laconick confession, ‘I don't like allegory’.

1869 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 159 336 The ilium above..is not so distinctly divided into two parts as in Didus, owing to the obsoleteness of the gluteal ridge already mentioned.

1884 J. R. Seeley in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 505 We are startled at the obsoleteness of the opinions he expresses.

1932 Science 1 July 9/1 While in Australia he tried to impress upon people the obsoleteness of the English monetary system.

1959 Amer. Slavic & East European Rev. 18 180 Soviet housing literature openly discusses the obsoleteness of the existing housing codes.

1990 B. Grant Deaf Advance (BNC) 88 The BDA's change of name will..not be fully justified until the hearing world also accepts the obsoleteness of the expression ‘deaf and dumb’.