whitenessn.
/ˈwʌɪtnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈ(h)waɪtnᵻs/ 1.
a. The quality or condition of being white in colour; white colour or appearance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > white or whiteness > [noun]
whiteOE
whitenessOE
albedony1623
albedineity1652
albedo1704
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xiv. 137 His gewæda scinon on snawes hwitnysse.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1965) Wisd. vii. 26 Forsoþe whitnesse [a1425 L.V. briȝtnesse; L. candor] it is of þe euerlastinge liȝt, & a merour with oute wem of þe maieste of god.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. xi. xi. 588 Wiþ litil hete snowe meltiþ into watir and he chaungiþ sone boþe out of hardnes and whitnes.
c1425 tr. J. Arderne Treat. Fistula (Sloane 6) (1910) 47 Þe wondes haþ hardnes wiþ whitenes and redenes.
1483 ( tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage of Soul (Caxton) iv. iv. f. lx The fayre blosme..whos whytenes passyd the snowe.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 39 The webbe is layde out in the hotte Sunne,..whereby it is brought to a passing whitenesse.
1592 R. Greene Vision sig. B4v The whitenesse of their haires bewrayed the number of their dayes.
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage viii. iii. 623 The brightnesse of the Starres and whitenesse of the snow.
a1650 E. Norgate Miniatura (Tanner 326) (1919) 98 Temper them with white lead to what whytnes you please.
1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters ii. 52 Salts of different degrees of purity and whiteness.
1791 W. Hamilton tr. C.-L. Berthollet Elements Art of Dyeing I. 134 The term scouring..is applied to this operation, by which it [sc. silk] acquires its suppleness and whiteness.
1827 M. Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiv. 639 Heat a little silver..to whiteness.
1886 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May 593/2 His very dark eyes and complexion made more noticeable by the dazzling whiteness of his hair.
1923 National Geographic Mag. Jan. 29/1 The country roads, incredibly dusty, have a whiteness which dazzles the eyes.
1961 H. Cohen & G. E. Linton Chem. & Textiles for Laundry Industry iii. 46 A dingy, gray..impregnation that builds up in fabrics and defies all efforts to attain good whiteness.
2007 N. Huston Fault Lines iii. 172 The whiteness of the snow on the mountains.
b. concrete. A white substance or part of something; (chiefly poetic) snow.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > white or whiteness > white thing > [noun]
whitenessOE
whiteOE
OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Vitell.) (1984) xxi. 68 Hit þa [h] witnesse [OE Harl. 585 hwitnesse, ?a1200 Harl. 6258B hwitnysse; L. albitionem] þ[æs s]curfes of ðam hea[f]de atyh[ð].
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xxx. 37 Þe ryndez [a1425 Corpus Oxf. riendis] drawn awey, in þilk þat wern ypylld semyd whitnes [L. candor].
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 131 Macule ar wiþoutforþ to þe difference of catharactez & saniei & albedinis, i. whitnez cristallium [?c1425 Paris cristallyne whitenesse, L. cristalline] þat ar retro, i. bihynde, corneam.
1560 Bible (Geneva) Tobit ii. 10 A whitenes came in mine eies, & I went to the phisicians who helped me not.
1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. H A purple floure..checkred with white, Resembling well his pale cheekes, and the blood, Which..vpon their whitenesse stood. View more context for this quotation
1650 Bp. J. Taylor Rule & Exercises Holy Living iv. §10. 360 Those Creatures that live amongst the snowes..turne white with their..conversation with such perpetual whitenesses.
1651 J. French Art Distillation i. 34 These Rinds must be fresh, and (the inward whiteness being separated) be bruised.
1727 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Oeconomique (Dublin ed.) at Draught horse If you discover some Spot, Obscureness, or Whiteness therein.
1781 S. J. Pratt Fair Circassian ii. i. 17 Oppressive time upon this head Hath heavy snow'd full many a winters whiteness.
1885 ‘F. Anstey’ Tinted Venus v, 62 [To a barber] Do you not swathe them in the garb of humiliation, and daub their countenances with whiteness?
1905 R. Bagot Passport ix. 79 The water-lilies lifted their pure whiteness to the..sunbeams.
1969 R. Humphries tr. Lucretius De Natura Rerum vi. 221 The melting snows..in summer sun, Dissolve their whiteness over the plains below.
2003 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 24 Aug. viii. 6/4 I tried to imagine the movie-set roofs piled with fluffy whiteness.
2. With reference to the colour of a person's skin, face, etc.
a. Lightness or fairness of complexion, esp. when regarded as beautiful or desirable.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > skin > complexion > whiteness or fairness > [noun]
whitenessOE
whitea1250
fairness1555
blondness1872
blondism1939
the world > life > the body > skin > complexion > paleness > [noun]
whitenessOE
wanness1382
pallorc1400
lewness1611
bloodlessness1646
exsanguinality1651
pallidness1661
pallidity1691
paledness1702
deadness1760
tallowiness1830
OE tr. Wonders of East (Tiber.) §27. 200 Þa wif syndon ðreotyne fota lange & heora lic bið on marmorstanes hwitnysse.
c1175 ( Homily: Hist. Holy Rood-tree (Bodl. 343) (1894) 16 Ða þe heo [sc. siȝelharwon] up arisene wæron þa wearð all heoræ swartnysse on hwitnesse iwænd.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xciii. 780 Fransshe men ben yclepede Galli and han þat name of whitnes of men.
1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie iv. viii. 119 Their beautie, whitenesse,..and shamefast grace.
a1676 J. Dunton Hue & Cry after Conscience (1685) 50 A man..who by his whiteness, much resembled Innocency at first blush.
1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. ii. xii. 250 If her Sleeve slipt above her Elbow..a Whiteness appeared which the finest Italian Paint would be unable to reach.
1808 R. Kerrison tr. A. Richerand Elements Physiol. xi. 451 Their stature is high, their skin of a perfect whiteness, their hair long, smooth, and of a flaxen colour.
1918 W. Cather My Ántonia ii. iv. 187 Her legs and arms..in spite of constant exposure to the sun, kept a miraculous whiteness.
2009 R. Yglesias Happy Marriage i. 3 Bernard had failed to mention the extraordinary big and vivid blue eyes.., the ice cream smooth whiteness of her freckled skin.
b. Pallor, paleness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > state or mode of having colour > absence of colour > [noun] > paleness
bleachc1050
palenessc1350
wanness1382
pallorc1400
whiteness?c1425
palea1547
lightness1552
albescence1742
sickness1849
?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 431 (MED) Colde and leccherie and heuynesse and longe sekenesses helpen to whytenesse [of the face].
c1475 ( Surg. Treat. in MS Wellcome 564 f. 84v He þat is stoungen of a venymous beest haþ greet akynge..and þe colour of his face chaungiþ now to whitnesse and now to grenesse.
?1569 T. Underdowne tr. Heliodorus Æthiopian Hist. i. f. 2 For all that his cheekes were be sprinkled with bloud, his whitenes did appeare so muche the more.
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. i. 68 The whitenes in thy cheeke, Is apter then thy tongue to tell thy arrand. View more context for this quotation
1794 S. Williams Nat. & Civil Hist. Vermont 389 The white men..lose their whiteness and become brown or red.
1823 C. Lamb Old Benchers in Elia 202 His cheeks were colourless, even to whiteness.
1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Livingstone vii, 52 It was no blush now, but a dead waxen whiteness, that came over the beautiful face.
1939 Z. N. Hurston Moses xxxvi. 301 Miriam was a horrible sight in her leprous whiteness.
c. Light skin-colour, esp. in a person of European origin or descent; the state or condition of being white (see white adj. 5a), conceived in terms of racial or cultural identity. Also with capital initial.
ΚΠ
1597 A. Hartwell in tr. D. Lopes Rep. Kingdome of Congo To Rdr. sig. *3v The heate of the Sunne is not the cause of Whitenesse or Blacknesse in the Skinnes of men.
1680 tr. J.-B. Tavernier Coll. Several Relations & Treat. vi. 17 The Tunquineses..are..of an Olive Complexion, very much admiring the whiteness of the Europeans.
1735 Prompter 10 Jan. (single sheet) What wild imaginary Superiority of Dignity has their pale sickly Whiteness to boast of, when compar'd with our Majestick Glossiness!
1756 R. Rolt New & Accurate Hist. S.-Amer. i. ii. 26 People, differing from the Europeans in whiteness, and the Africans in blackness.., and being a medium between both.
1871 C. Darwin Descent of Man II. ii. xix. 346 The negroes rallied Mungo Park on the whiteness of his skin and the prominence of his nose.
1922 S. G. Millin Adam's Rest 42 In South Africa... A poor white belongs to a type characterised by dubious antecedents, dubious whiteness, dubious respectability, dubious earning capacity.
1968 Daily Times-News (Burlington, N. Carolina) 18 May 4 a/3 Characteristics don't come from blackness or whiteness, but they come from a man's conditioning, or..his cultural background.
2000 Teaching Tolerance Fall 16/2 Together they are experiencing a collective meltdown over the realities of race and their own Whiteness.
2007 Independent 17 Aug. 36/6 Why should I, or any other mixed-race person, be compelled to regard ‘whiteness’ as our dominant identity?
3. Moral or spiritual purity; stainless character or quality.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > purity > [noun]
cleannessc890
unwemmednessc1175
purity?c1225
shireness?c1225
cleanshipc1230
uncorruptionc1384
purenessa1398
undefoulingnessc1400
whitenessc1400
cleanliness1430
immaculation1509
clearness1526
undefiledness1571
uncorruptness1583
unspottedness1598
intemerateness1607
uncorruptedness1611
candour1612
spotlessness1619
immaculateness1641
candidness1654
unblemishedness1656
intemeration1660
unstainedness1685
pearliness1760
taintlessness1811
stainlessness1862
c1400 tr. Aelred of Rievaulx De Institutione Inclusarum (Vernon) (1984) 34 We takeþ sumwhat off whitnesse in þe wasschyngge awey of þe vielþe of synne, bote, certes, al parfytly clene and whith be we not imaad.
1553 J. Bradford Let. 19 Nov. in M. Coverdale Certain Lett. Martyrs (1564) 284 Sope, though it be blacke, soileth not the clothe..so doth the blacke crosse helpe vs to more whitenes.
1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 28 To vindicat the whitenes and the innocence of this divine Law, from the calumny it findes.
1663 A. Cowley Horace in Ess. in Verse & Prose iii. i. 3 To Virgin Minds, which yet their Native whiteness hold,..these truths I tell.
1752 H. Fielding Amelia II. vi. vi. 230 The unspotted Whiteness of thy Virtue.
1799 W. Godwin St. Leon III. viii. 173 The object of the inquisition is to defend our holy mother, the church, from whatever might defile her sanctity and whiteness.
1816 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto III lvii. 33 He had kept The whiteness of his soul.
1884 R. Harrop Bolingbroke i. 44 Such..was the whiteness of his record in this respect.
1953 A. Miller Crucible iv. 141 Your soul alone is the issue here, Mister, and you will prove its whiteness.
2010 J. B. Salazar Bodies of Reform ii. 55 The backwoodsman..safeguards the whiteness of character itself as the privileged mark of the rights-bearing citizen of the civilized republic.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.OE- short-running
- short-sea
- short-service
- short-set
- short-shank
- short-sheep
- short-shipped
- short-short
- short-sighted
- short-sightedly
- short-sightedness
- short-silk
- short-six
- short-sleeved
- short-snorter
- short-spent
- short-spirited
- short-splice
- short-spoken
- short-staff
- short-staffed
- short-stage
- short-stapled
- short-start
- short-started