Shapeliness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state or quality of having a pleasing and well-proportioned form
2. The characteristic of possessing an appealing and balanced outline or contour
3. The condition of exhibiting an aesthetically attractive and well-formed shape

Etymology: "Shapeliness" is formed from "shapely" plus the suffix "-ness", and the suffix is the more interesting half. The "-ness" ending descends from an ancient Germanic noun-forming element, and its Old English form "-nes" was used to build abstract nouns from adjectives, so that a quality could be named as a thing in itself. Words like "goodness" and "darkness" follow the same pattern. The base word "shapely" is older and more concrete than the suffix suggests. It is built from "shape" with the adjective-forming "-ly", which in Old English meant "having the form or appearance of". Its earlier sense was closer to "well-formed" or "fitting a pattern" than to any sense of beauty, and the aesthetic emphasis developed over time. The noun is attested in Middle English as "schaplynesse", which shows that the combination of an adjective with "-ness" was already in use for this concept before the modern spelling settled. The modern form is a straightforward English compound, with no foreign borrowing involved.

Synonyms: form, contour, figure, beauty, elegance

Antonyms: awkwardness, clumsiness, deformity, irregularity, ungracefulness