salaciousness

salacious +‎ -ness

salaciousness (usually uncountable, plural salaciousnesses)

1. The state or characteristic of being salacious.
   • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth and Animated Nature, London: J. Nourse, Volume 5, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 170,

     The cock, from his salaciousness, is allowed to be a short lived animal; but how long these birds live, if left to themselves, is not yet well ascertained by any historian.

   • 1895, Frank Harris, “The Best Man in Garotte” in Elder Conklin and Other Stories, London: Heinemann, p. 160,

     […] he began a tale which cannot be retold here, but which delighted the boys as much by its salaciousness as by its vivacity.

   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, New York: Harcourt, Brace, Chapter 13, p. 158,

     I giggle with the most revolting salaciousness over La Vie Parisienne, when I get hold of one in Chicago, yet I shouldn’t even try to hold your hand.

   • 2002, Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention, New Haven: Yale University Press, Chapter 2, p. 51,

     Fokine did not mince words in describing the infamous closing moments of the ballet [L’Après-midi d’un faune], charging that Diaghilev used Nijinski as nothing more than a tool to shock his audience. He hinted that scandal was Diaghilev’s goal, for salaciousness would attract an audience.

   • 2010, Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question, New York: Bloomsbury, Part One, Chapter 3, p. 20,

     […] he actually used the word erotic, snagging his tongue on it as though the salaciousness of the syllables themselves was enough to arouse him […]

• bawdiness, indecency, lasciviousness, lewdness, salacity