woodnessn.
Obsolete exc. dialect or archaic.
1. Mental derangement, insanity, mania, frenzy, lunacy, craziness: = madness n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [noun] > insanity or madness
woodnessc1000
woodshipc1000
madshipc1225
woodc1275
woodhead1303
ragec1330
amentiaa1398
madnessa1398
frenzy?a1400
madheada1400
maddingc1400
alienation?a1425
furiosity?a1475
derverye1480
forcenery1480
furiousnessc1500
unwitness1527
unwitting1527
demencya1529
straughtness1530
insaniea1538
brainsickness1541
lunacy1541
amenty1557
distraughtness1576
dementation?1583
straughtedness1583
insanity1590
crazedness1593
bedlam1598
dementia1598
insanation1599
non compos mentis1607
distraction1609
daffinga1614
disinsanitya1625
cerebrosity1647
vecordy1656
fanaticness1662
non-sanity1675
insaneness1730
craziness1755
hydrophobia1760
vecord1788
derangement1800
vesania1800
a screw loose1810
unsoundness1825
dementedness1833
craze1841
psychosis1847
crackiness1861
feyness1873
crack1891
meshugas1898
white ant1908
crackedness1910
pottiness1933
loopiness1939
wackiness1941
screwballism1942
kink1959
c1000 Ælfric Homilies I. 458 Þa geaxode se cyning Polimius be ðam witseocum menn, hu se apostol hine fram ðære wodnysse ahredde.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds xxvi. 24 Poul, thou maddist, or wexist wood; manye lettris turnen thee to woodnesse.
1493 Dives & Pauper (1496) v. xviii. 220/1 Yf a man in his woodness & rauynge slee man & woman or childe.
1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis iii. f. 9 Droonken woodnesse wrought by wyne.
1605 R. Verstegan Restit. Decayed Intelligence vii. 238 Wee yet retaine in some partes of England, the word wodnes for furiousnes or madnes.
1657 G. Thornley tr. Longus Daphnis & Chloe 60 Their minds were struck with a kind of Woodnesse.
1803 W. S. Rose tr. Amadis de Gaule 128 Wrapt in imagin'd flames to woodness stung Deep in a roaring stream, she headlong sprung.
2. Extravagant folly or recklessness; vehemence of passion or desire; wildness, infatuation. Cf. madness n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > violent emotion > [noun]
woodnessc1000
furyc1374
ferteec1380
ragea1393
violencea1393
excess1423
zeala1425
vehemence1445
extremity1509
franticnessa1529
vehemency1534
wildnessc1540
impotency1542
violent1576
distraughture1594
distraught1610
distractiona1616
distractedness?1617
entrancement1637
distractfulnessa1640
impotencea1640
transportment1639
transportednessa1656
violent1667
whirl1707
rave1765
Sturm und Drang1857
storm and stress1879
the mind > emotion > excitement > extravagant or rapturous excitement > [noun]
woodnessc1000
excess1423
inebriation1526
madness1595
deliration1603
raptery1640
mania1689
intoxication1712
ebriety1751
delirium1757
nympholepsy1776
inebriety1786
orgiasm1840
raptus1845
ebriosity1854
slap-happiness1958
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > weakness of intellect > madness, extreme folly > [noun]
woodnessc1000
woodhead1303
madnessc1384
ragec1390
lunacya1592
idiotism1592
wittolry1592
midsummer madnessa1616
hare-brainedness1656
idiotry1757
insanity1840
meshugas1898
c1000 in Assmann Hom. (1889) 60/212 Þa sæt he..tælende þone hælend..His wodnys wearð gewrecen swa þurh god.
c1374 G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde iii. 1382 They callen loue a woodnesse or folye.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 197 In þat lond is a lake wonderful and wood [L. furialis], for who þat drynkeþ þerof he schal brenne in woodnesse of leccherie.
c1430 J. Lydgate Minor Poems (Percy Soc.) 76 A woode wisdom, and a wise woodenesse.
R. Misyn tr. R. Rolle Fire of Love 90 Here is lufe with-outen meyknes, wodnes ful likynge.
1484 W. Caxton tr. Subtyl Historyes & Fables Esope vi Now perceyue I wel thy foly and grete wodenesse.
1588 A. King tr. P. Canisius Cathechisme or Schort Instr. ii. i viij It is extreme vodnes to doubt quhither thay ar to be kept haly or nocht.
1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 284 When their genitalles are full of seede they grow into woodnesse and rage of lust.
3.
a. Violent anger, wrath, fury, rage; extreme fierceness, ferocity, savageness, cruelty. Cf. madness n. 4.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > anger > furious anger > [noun]
foamc900
wrethec950
woodnessc1000
eyec1175
wrathc1175
grim13..
ragingc1300
ragec1325
furyc1374
fiercetya1382
fiercenessc1384
wrotha1400
grindellaikc1400
rasedheadc1450
furor1477
windc1485
furiousnessc1500
enrage1502
furiosity1509
passion1524
ourningc1540
enragement1596
enragedness1611
transportation1617
emportment1663
madness1663
foaming1709
infuriation1848
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [noun] > fierce or furious
woodnessc1000
fiercetya1382
furiosity1509
bremeness?1529
fury1534
carnage1902
c1000 Ælfric Homilies II. 30 Þæt earme wif gelyfde his waelhreowum geðeahte, and wearð mid maran wodnysse astyrod.
a1340 R. Rolle Psalter vi. 1 Lord in thi wodnes argu me noght.
a1340 R. Rolle Psalter vi. 1 Wodness or ire is a stirynge of mannys will, excitand to vengaunce.
c1400 St. Alexius (Vernon) 474 Heo ter his cloþus al in sunder, in a gret woodnesse.
a1464 J. Capgrave Abbreuiacion of Cron. (Cambr. Gg.4.12) (1983) 185 In her wodnes þei kyllid þe bischop of Cauntirbiry.
c1480 (a1400) St. Paul 704 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 49 Nero wes brocht In sa mekill wodnes of thocht, þat he his awne modir gert sla.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. R.viij You haue chased the bulle, and scaped his woodnes.
1551 J. Bale Actes Eng. Votaryes: 2nd Pt. f. xciij He fretted for wodenesse, and was angrye with himselfe.
1577 M. Hanmer tr. Bp. Eusebius in Aunc. Eccl. Hist. viii. xxvii. 167 He proceeding in cruelty and daily encreasing his sauadge woodnes against ye Saincts of God.
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxvi. xiii. 593 Wild and savage beasts..madded..with blind rage and woodnesse against one.
1825 J. Wilson Noctes Ambrosianae xix, in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 373 Whiles I just girn, out-bye yonner, wi' perfect wudness when I think o' you..rinnin down me, and ither men o' genius.
1906 C. M. Doughty Dawn in Brit. IV. xiii. 36 So woodness kindles his great heart, gainst Romans.
b. figurative. Excessive violence or severity, ‘fury’ (of pain, or of inanimate things, as wind, fire, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > violent action or operation > [noun] > extreme
woodnessa1400
utterance1430
outrageousnessc1450
outragenessc1455
rabidness1649
rabidity1831
a1400 Stockholm Med. MS. ii. 704 in Anglia XVIII. 324 It doth noth awey all þe pyne, But all þe wodnesse for þe tyme.
c1425 Bk. Found. St. Bartholomew's (1923) 21 His kechyn was a-fyre sodenly, and likely to perissh with wooddenes of fyre.
1508 W. Dunbar Goldyn Targe (Chepman & Myllar) in Poems (1998) I. 191 The lord of wyndis with wodenes (God Eolus) his bugill blew.
1530 Myroure Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 189 Fayre flowres wherof the nynte parte faded by the wodnesse of the northe.
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 2008 Þe fuerse wyndes, And the wodenes of waghes.
1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes sig. Q.iv No rage of drenching sea, nor woodenesse of the winde.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1928; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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