agedness
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English agednes, agidnes, equivalent to aged + -ness.
Noun
[edit]agedness (uncountable)
- The state or quality of being aged.
- 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England and the Causes that Hitherto Have Hindered It, Volume I, in Charles Symmons (ed.), The Prose Works of John Milton, London: J. Johnson (etc.), 1806, Volume I, pp. 21-22 (citing the 74th epistle of Cyprian),[1]
- Neither ought custom to hinder that truth should not prevail; for custom without truth is but agedness of errour.
- 1856, John Ruskin, chapter 1, in Modern Painters […], volume IV, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part V (Of Mountain Beauty), page 3:
- I cannot tell the half of the strange pleasures and thoughts that come about me at the sight of that old tower; for, in some sort, it is the epitome of all that makes the Continent of Europe interesting, as opposed to new countries; and, above all, it completely expresses that agedness in the midst of active life which binds the old and the new into harmony.
- 1946, Mervyn Peake, “Assemblage”, in Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode:
- Keda's oldness was the work of fate, alchemy. An occult agedness. A transparent darkness. A broken and mysterious grove. A tragedy, a glory, a decay.
- 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England and the Causes that Hitherto Have Hindered It, Volume I, in Charles Symmons (ed.), The Prose Works of John Milton, London: J. Johnson (etc.), 1806, Volume I, pp. 21-22 (citing the 74th epistle of Cyprian),[1]
Synonyms
[edit]- elderliness, oldness, senectitude; see also Thesaurus:oldness