Gretnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Archaic term for the quality of being great in size, rank, power, or importance, as used in Middle English writing
2. An obsolete noun meaning greatness, whether of magnitude, dignity, strength, or significance, found in medieval English texts
3. Old English spelling denoting the condition of being large, mighty, or eminent in rank, influence, or extent

Etymology: Middle English "gretnesse" is the ancestor of modern "greatness," and it is a plain suffix formation: "gret" (great) plus "-nesse" (-ness), the Middle English noun-forming ending that Old English had as "-nes." Adding "-nesse" to an adjective turns a quality into a thing you can name, so "gretnesse" meant the condition or quality of being large, important, or powerful. Late Old English "great" itself carried a range of senses, including "thick" and "coarse," which is why the family of words spread so widely in meaning. The word appears in Middle English texts from the 13th and 14th centuries, and by the early modern period the spelling had settled into "greatness," with the "-nesse" ending giving way to "-ness" as the standard form in writing. The change is ordinary orthographic and phonetic wear rather than a change in meaning.