niceness

English

Etymology tree

English nice

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 niceness

From nice + -ness.

niceness (countable and uncountable, plural nicenesses)

(obsolete) Silliness; folly. [16th c.]
Effeminacy; indulgence in soft living or luxuriousness. [from 16th c.]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 10, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
  He was a good Citizen, of an honest-gentle nature, as are commonly fat and burly men; for so was he: But to speake truely of him, full of ambitious vanitie and remisse nicenesse [translating mollesse].
(obsolete) Shyness; reserve. [16th–19th c.]
- 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC:
  Methinks a young create of niceness should be less ready to write to one man, when she is designed to be another's.
Fastidiousness; fine sensitivity. [from 17th c.]
Pleasantness, especially of behaviour or personality; agreeableness. [from 19th c.]
(computing, Unix) A value determining how much processor time to concede to a running process. (See also nice (verb), renice.)