Coldnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of having a low temperature or lacking warmth
2. The quality of being cold in temperature or in manner and demeanor
3. The state or degree of low temperature or absence of heat

Etymology: "Coldnesse" is a Middle English spelling of "coldness," the state of being cold. The root is Old English "ceald," which descends from the same Germanic source as modern "cold." The ending comes from Old English "-nes," a suffix that turned adjectives into nouns for a quality or condition, as in "goodness" or "darkness." English has used that pattern since the Old English period, so the word is a straightforward derivation rather than a borrowing. The final "-e" is a spelling convention of Middle English, where many final vowels were still pronounced. Writers such as Chaucer and his contemporaries wrote the word this way, and the spelling dropped out as the language standardized in the centuries that followed.