Blyndnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of being unable to see ; a state of mental or spiritual ignorance that prevents a person from understanding the truth
2. Sightlessness, the complete absence of vision ; an intellectual or moral failure to perceive what is right or true
3. Loss of the power of sight ; an inability to recognize or grasp what is plainly evident, understood as a figurative darkness of the mind

Etymology: Middle English "blyndnesse" is the noun form of "blind" (from Old English "blind", meaning unable to see, and the Germanic root behind it), with the suffix "-nesse" (Old English "-nes", the ancestor of modern "-ness") attached to turn an adjective into a noun naming a state or quality. So the word literally means "the quality of being blind." The suffix did much of the work. Old English "-nes" was a productive way to make abstract nouns from adjectives, and it stayed productive through Middle English, which is why spellings like "blyndnesse" with a final -e appear in medieval texts. Over time the -e was dropped and the spelling settled into the modern "blindness." The modern word has widened beyond physical sight. It is now used of mental or moral failings, as in a "blindness" to one's own faults, though the core sense of being unable to see remains.