nastiness

English

Etymology

nasty +‎ -ness

Noun

nastiness (countable and uncountable, plural nastinesses)

1. (uncountable) Lack of cleanliness.
   • 1684, John Dryden, “The Eighteenth Epistle of the First Book of Horace” in Miscellany Poems, London: Jacob Tonson, 4th edition, 1716, Volume 2, p. 242,^[1]

     They neither comb their Head, nor wash their Face,

     But think their virtuous Nastiness a grace.
2. (uncountable) Dirt, filth.
3. (uncountable) Indecency; corruption; unkindness, meanness, spite, harshness, cruelty.
   • 1995, John Skow, “Snobs and Wetbacks,” Time, 4 September, 1995,^[2]

     Among current novelists, Martin Amis lacks intellectual force but is well supplied with nastiness, which occasionally resembles humor.

   • 2017, Teddy Wayne, “The Culture of Nastiness,” New York Times, 18 February, 2017,^[3]

     Despite efforts to curb hate speech, eradicate bullying and extend tolerance, a culture of nastiness has metastasized in which meanness is routinely rewarded, and common decency and civility are brushed aside.

4. (uncountable) Unpleasantness, disagreeableness (to the senses).
   • 2011, Lucinda Baring, “Florida: driving along the Overseas Highway to Key West,” The Daily Telegraph, 5 June, 2011,^[4]

     During the day, the surrounding blocks are no better, full of cheesy bars, tacky shops and brash, neon nastiness.

5. (countable) A nasty action, object, quality, etc. (all senses of nasty).
   • 1854, John Simon, Preface to Reports Relating to the Sanitary Condition of the City of London, London: John W. Parker & Son, p. xx,^[5]

     If we, who are educated, habitually submit to have copper in our preserves, red-lead in our cayenne, alum in our bread, pigments in our tea, and ineffable nastinesses in our fish-sauce, what can we expect of the poor?

   • 1899, Charles George Harper, The Bath Road: History, Fashion & Frivolity on an Old Highway, London: Chapman & Hall, Chapter 39, pp. 237-238,^[6]

     […] imagine the delights of bathing when the Baths were open to public view, the said public delighting to throw dead cats, offal, and all manner of nastinesses among the bathers!

   • 2001, Arion Berger, “‘New American Language’: Bern Again,” Washington Post, 4 November, 2001,^[]

     He’s too thoughtful to pretend he’s speaking for humankind on what passes for a Dan Bern protest song—“Tape” folds in a conversational outreach to a girl (“Baby did you get the tape I sent?”) along with a rundown of various societal nastinesses, including the prescient, “We might get to see World War III by Thanksgiving Day.”

Anagrams

• antsiness