sweetfulness

English

Etymology

From sweetful +‎ -ness.

Noun

sweetfulness (uncountable)

1. (now uncommon) The quality of being sweetful.
   • 1869, Henry Martin, “Caro et Spiritus”, in Phædra, and Other Poems, London: (for the Author) John Camden Hotten, […], page 69:

     Then come, my sweet, I am athirst for thee; / Mine eyelids quiver with the heat of love, / And like the life-devouring hungry sea / I fain would compass with the waves thereof / Thyself, mine eyes’ content; yea, let me press / Upon thy lips one kiss of sweetfulness.

   • 1885 June 6, “The Soldier and Lenore”, in The Kearney County Advocate, volume I, number 3, Lakin, Kan.:

     Yes, the alarm of cruel war broke into the sweetfulness of the dreams / Of these / Betrothed and devoted / Lovers!

   • 1885 September 24, “Communicated”, in The State Vidette‎^[1], volume III, number 21, Crete, Neb.:

     Even as mean an animal as a skunk will make himself known to the travelling public, but the so-called “life-long democrat” slinks behind a hedge fenced nom de plume and does not rise to the dignity of the aforesaid animal, tho’ we’ll wager our interest in a gold mine that a skunk can discount Life-Long Democrat on truth, beauty and sweetfulness.

   • 1887 June 2, J. W. M., “Old Maids Again”, in New Orleans Christian Advocate, volume 34, number 22 (whole 1609), New Orleans, La., page 2, column 4:

     Ask a mother who has a boy bursting into the sweetfulness of manhood what estimate she puts upon him. Would she exchange the love and veneration of that young heart for Alice’s and Phœbe’s happiness and the ephemeral reputation these girls have left their friends and generation? Certainly not. Her language would be, should a proposition be made to build her a world and install her perpetual queen, provided her boy’s love and being were blotted out, Never, never!

   • 1895 August 24, The Neihart Herald‎^[2], volume V, number 39 (whole 247), Neihart, Mont.:

     We have often received a “thousand kisses” at the caudal extremity of a letter, but it requires a painful stretch of imagination to appreciate such luscious sweetfulness.

   • 1895 August 26, “The First Murderer. The Story Taught the Human Race By the History of Cain and Abel. Fine Arts and the Press Enlighten the World and Serve Religion in Constantly Nobler Ways.”, in The Daily Inter Mountain, volume XV, number 135, Butte, Mont., page 8:

     This charity only increases our joy, for the more we give the more we receive, till our hearts overflow with sweetfulness.

   • 1898 December 16, “The Trial Ended”, in Evening Journal‎^[3], Wilmington, Del.:

     You are not trying General Keneny for the fact that he did not nurse this pure, sweet cherub back to sweetfulness, gentleness and piety.

   • 1904 December 9, Henry Blount, “The Blessed Sabbath”, in The Newton Enterprise‎^[4], volume XXVI, number 41, Newton, N.C.:

     No words can describe how its hush and its rest and its solace and its sweetfulness hath calmed and soothed the aching brain and fevered pulse and stinging nerve, […]

   • 1905 April 19, The Birmingham News, volume XVIII, number 32, Birmingham, Ala., page 13:

     The Southern League championship season was inaugurated today. Birmingham and Montgomery locked horns in this city and Nashville and Atlanta tossed the sweet tinge of sweetfulness into the hearts of the faithful in the Georgia capital.

   • 1906, Saint Bernard, “Letters and Sermons of Saint Bernard. Abbot of Clairvaux.”, in Samuel J. Eales, transl., Ancient and Modern Masterpieces of the Leading Lights of the Catholic Church: […], volume I, sermon No. 12, page 162:

     The grateful soul labors and strives to express more completely that sweetfulness of delight, and finds no words to do so; and such is the worth of these few words that if only one iota be changed the meaning of the whole message is instantly diminished.

     sweet fulness in Life and Works of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux (1896), by the same translator.

   • 1910 September 19, “Nurse Was Perplexed”, in The Tacoma Daily Ledger, volume XXVIII, number 166, Tacoma, Wash., page 6:

     The lady is very particular about her servants. They must have the best of references, be well appearing, of quiet demeanor and always the pink of sweetfulness.

   • 1911 April 28, Devils Lake Inter-Ocean‎^[5], volume XXIX, number 6, Devils Lake, N.D.:

     That Beautiful and Realistic Comedy of Modern Life / The CLIMAX / By EDWARD LOCKE / Musical Theme by Joseph Carl Breil / A Play of Sweetfulness and Strength

   • 1921 April, P. H. Edwards, “Old Dick Lewis”, in The Trinity Archive, volume XXXIII, number 5, page 31:

     He listened to the sweet strains of the music and liked it, It soothed him, calmed him, and sent sense of sweetfulness and restfulness through his tired soul.

   • 1925 October 11, John Jay Chapman, “Banked Fires (1918–1929)”, in M[ark] A[nthony] DeWolfe Howe, editor, John Jay Chapman and His Letters, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge: The Riverside Press, published 1937, page 411:

     You, you have been butchered, and will go down to posterity as ‘The man with the lily,’ etc., by Carola Dolci — such color — and sweetfulness.

   • 1928, James Grattan Grey, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand from Earliest Times, page 244:

     The wonderful preservation of her voice throughout her lengthy career on the operatic stage is really phenomenal, and gratifying not only to herself but to everyone who has had the privilege of listening to its range and sweetfulness since her return from Europe.

   • 1956 September 3, “Victor Thompson’s Personal Piece”, in Daily Herald, number 12600, page 4:

     And Inky the Indian boy — Hurree Jamset Ram Singh in full—whose idea of English was to say, “The sweet[-]fulness of these jam-iferous tarts is terrific.”

   • 1964, James T[homas] Farrell, chapter 46, in What Time Collects, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., →LCCN, section I, page 338:

     Moans escaped her, broke out as nerves disturbed into a tingling and acute awakeness, quivered and throbbed with final, and finest sweetfulness of joy.

   • 2017, Swami Atmashraddhananda, Bhakti: The Path of Divine Love, Sri Ramakrishna Math, published 30 December 2021, →ISBN:

     How does self-surrender come into this path of Jnana Marga as we normally and naturally take it to be the sweet and joyful merger of the little individuality of the Bhakta with the Immensity of his Beloved God Whom the Upanishad describes as rasa-swarupa (the Embodiment of Joy or sweetfulness)?

   • 2022 May 13, “'Heartstopper' is bursting with young queer love, cartoon hearts and fireworks”, in NPR‎^[6], archived from the original on 13 May 2022:

     [MARK] BLANKENSHIP: […] And it - as we're talking, it makes me realize that's why this show for me became about sweetness with thoughtfulness. It's sweetfulness (ph) with respect for the humanity of the people on screen.