worldliness
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English worldlynesse, equivalent to worldly + -ness. Compare West Frisian wrâldlikens (“worldliness”), German Weltlichkeit (“worldliness”), Swedish världslighet (“worldliness”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Noun[edit]
worldliness (countable and uncountable, plural worldlinesses)
- The quality of being worldly; familiarity with the ways of the world.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Act of Parliament”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 186:
- There was a coarseness in the one which revolted the almost fastidious delicacy of the other; and Lady Marchmont, full of poetry, touched with romance and sentiment, had nothing in common with the harsh and hard worldliness of Lady Mary;...
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
the quality of being worldly
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