Semlynesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Archaic term for the quality of being fitting, decent, or pleasing in appearance, manner, or conduct
2. An old word for seemliness, the state of being suitable, proper, and pleasing to look at or observe
3. Obsolete noun meaning the fitness or propriety of something, especially in how a person looks or behaves

Etymology: "Semlynesse" is a Middle English noun meaning seemliness: fittingness, decency, or pleasing appearance. It is a modern-style spelling of a form that is now obsolete, and it was built the ordinary way, from the adjective "semly" (later "seemly") plus the suffix "-nesse," the ancestor of "-ness." The adjective goes back to Old English "semlic," meaning fitting or becoming, and it belongs to the same family as the verb "seem." That verb did not originally mean to appear to be something. Its older sense, borrowed from Old Norse "sœma," was to be fitting or suitable, to do honour. The sense of looking or appearing came later. So a thing that was "semly" was first of all proper and suitable, and only secondarily pleasing to the eye.