saltness

From Middle English saltenesse, saltnesse, from Old English sealtnes (“saltness”), equivalent to salt +‎ -ness.

saltness (uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being salt; saltiness.
   • c. 1597, Henry IV, Part 2, Act I, Scene 2,

     Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your health.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Mark 9.50,

     Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it?

   • c. 1752, Elizabeth Moxon, English Housewifry, Leeds, “124. To make a Herring Pye of white salt Herrings,” p. 72,

     Take five or six salt Herrings, wash them very well, lay them in a pretty Quantity of Water all Night to take out the Saltness […]

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands, Chapter 2,

     The sea, perhaps because of its saltness, roughens the outside but keeps sweet the kernel of its servants’ soul.

   • 1919, Ernest Shackleton, South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition, 1914-1917, London: Heinemann, Chapter 8, p. 137,

     We were dreadfully thirsty now. We found that we could get momentary relief by chewing pieces of raw seal meat and swallowing the blood, but thirst came back with redoubled force owing to the saltness of the flesh.

• Stansels, lastness