Nefariousness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being extremely wicked, immoral, or criminal in nature
2. The state or character of being profoundly evil, villainous, or morally corrupt
3. A condition marked by extreme wickedness, depravity, or heinous criminality

Etymology: Nefariousness is a plain English formation: the adjective "nefarious" with the suffix "-ness" attached, turning a quality into a noun. The adjective itself comes from Latin "nefarius," built from "nefas," meaning something contrary to divine law or religious right, which is why the word once carried a strong sense of sacrilege rather than mere badness. The "-ness" ending has a much older pedigree. It descends from Old English "-nes," a suffix that has been producing abstract nouns from adjectives in English for well over a thousand years, and it is still the everyday way of forming them, as in "kindness" or "darkness." Because the suffix is so productive, the noun "nefariousness" can be formed from almost any adjective without special effort, and it names the abstract quality rather than any particular wicked act. Where "nefarious" describes a wicked plot or a villain, "nefariousness" describes the wickedness itself, as a property a person or scheme possesses.

Synonyms: wickedness, evil

Antonyms: goodness, virtue