Voidenesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of having nothing inside or being devoid of content, an archaic term for emptiness
2. An old word for the quality of being vacant, hollow, or lacking any substance or occupant
3. Archaic noun describing a state of emptiness, vacancy, or the absence of anything within a space

Etymology: "Voidenesse" is a Middle English formation: the adjective "void" with the suffix "-nesse," the ancestor of modern "-ness," which turns a quality into a noun. The adjective came into English from Old French "voide," meaning empty, which in turn came from "voidier," to empty out. Those French words trace back to a Vulgar Latin "viduare," from Latin "viduus," meaning bereft or deprived. English "widow" comes from the same Latin family, but through a separate Germanic line, so the two are cognates rather than borrowings from one another.