yellowness

English

Etymology

From yellow + -ness.

Noun

yellowness (usually uncountable, plural yellownesses)

  1. The state or quality of being yellow.
    • c. 1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse,” lines 8-11,
      Now voucheth sauf this day or hyt be nyght
      That I of yow the blisful soun may here
      Or see your colour lyk the sonne bryght
      That of yelownesse hadde never pere.
    • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, London: William Blackwood & Sons, Volume III, Book V, Chapter 45, p. 25,
      [] at least there would be no harm in getting a few bottles of “stuff” from him, since if these proved useless it would still be possible to return to the Purifying Pills, which kept you alive, if they did not remove the yellowness.
    • 1924, Herbert Jenkins, The Bindles on the Rocks, London: Herbert Jenkins, Chapter VI, Part II,
      [] lemonade of a yellowness sufficient to convince the most inveterate pessimist of the presence of the lemon.
  2. (obsolete) Jealousy.
    • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, Scene 3,
      My humour shall not cool: I will incense Page to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness, for the revolt of mine is dangerous: that is my true humour.
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, The Third Partition: Love Melancholy, Section 3, Member 1, Subsection 2, p. 680,
      The vndiscreet carriage of some lasciuious gallant [] by his often frequenting of an house, and bold vnseemly gestures, may make a breach, and by his ouer familiarity, if he be inclined to yellownesse, colour him quite out.

Translations

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