vividness

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-

Proto-Indo-European *-wós

Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós

Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃weti

Proto-Italic *gʷīwō

Latin vīvō

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.

Proto-Italic *-iðos

Latin -idus

Latin vīviduslbor.

English vivid

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 vividness

From vivid + -ness.

Noun

vividness (usually uncountable, plural vividnesses)

1. The quality or state of being vivid.
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 118:

     I felt light-headed; grotesque hallucinations materialised before me with startling vividness.

   • 1958 February, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 89:

     As the rest of the film was made on location in the railway yards of Havre and not in a studio, and was given a sound-track of penetrating vividness, this whole production gives the closest possible ring of truth of any film about railways.

Synonyms

• vividity (rare), color

Translations

state of being vivid

• Czech: živost f, barvitost f
• Hungarian: élénkség (hu)
• Japanese: 鮮やかさ (ja) (azayakasa)
• Macedonian: ја́сност f (jásnost), жи́вост f (žívost)
• Polish: plastyka (pl) f
• Portuguese: vividez (pt) f
• Spanish: nitidez (es) f

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “vividness”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.