insidiousness

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English insidious

Proto-Germanic *-in-

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-Germanic *-inōną

Proto-Indo-European *-dyé-

Proto-Germanic *-atjaną

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Proto-Germanic *-þuz

Proto-Germanic *-assuz

Proto-Germanic *-inassuz

Proto-West Germanic *-nassī

Old English -nes

Middle English -nesse

English -ness

English insidiousness

From insidious + -ness.

Noun

insidiousness (usually uncountable, plural insidiousnesses)

1. A surreptitious harmfulness, quality of entrapment, or treacherousness; the characteristic of being insidious.
   • 1900, Edith Wharton, chapter 8, in The Touchstone:

     This lent a new insidiousness to his temptation, since her contempt would be a refuge from his own.

Translations

the characteristic of being insidious

• Bulgarian: коварство (bg) (kovarstvo)
• Spanish: insidia (es) f

References

• Noah Webster (1828), “insidiousness”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume I (A–I), New York, N.Y.: […] S. Converse; printed by Hezekiah Howe […], →OCLC.
• “insidiousness”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.