Pukishness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being sickening enough to make someone want to vomit ; the state of being repellent or nauseating in appearance or character
2. A sickening, vomit-inducing quality in something ; the condition of being disgusting or revolting to the senses
3. Something that makes a person feel sick and repelled ; the offensive, nauseating character that something or someone has

Etymology: Pukishness is simply "puki" plus the suffix "-ness." The base adjective "puki" (also written "pukey" or "puky") is a British slang word meaning sickly or nauseating, and it is usually traced to the verb "puke," which dates to the 1560s or so. The verb is of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of the sound of retching, and has no firmly established ancestry beyond that. The adjective "puki" appeared in the 1900s and was popular in British schoolboy and colloquial speech, applied both to literal sickness and to anything tacky, cloying, or distasteful. The suffix "-ness," from Old English "-nes," turns an adjective into a noun for a quality or state, so "pukishness" names the quality of being puki. The noun is a transparent formation with little documented history of its own, so its meaning follows directly from its parts.