seedness

English

Etymology

From seed +‎ -ness.

Noun

seedness (uncountable)

1. (rare) The state or quality of being seed.
   • 1988, Peter Hayes, chapter 9, in The Supreme Adventure: The Experience of Siddha Yoga‎^[1], New York: Dell, page 163:

     […] when the seed surrenders, it becomes a tree. Seeds that don’t surrender their “seedness” only wither up and blow away.

2. (obsolete) Seedtime.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
     That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
     To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
     Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XVIII.] chapter 17.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC, page 574:

     […] there be certaine little wormes breeding in the root, that do eat it: which happeneth by occasion of much raine falling immediatly after the seednesse, especially, when some sudden heat and drowth ensueth therupon […]

   • 1845, John James Blunt, Five Sermons Preached before the University of Cambridge‎^[2], Cambridge: J. & J.J. Deighton, published 1847, Sermon 4, p. 73:

     […] how does God admonish us of the value of time, by so constructing things, as that opportunities once let slip, i.e. time wasted, are never to be redeemed, do what we will to repair our folly! A seedness suffered to escape, and the harvest for the year irrecoverable […]