archness

English

Etymology

From arch (“principal; primary; mischievous”, adj) +‎ -ness.

Noun

archness (countable and uncountable, plural archnesses)

  1. The state of being arch.
    • 1811, Jane Austen, chapter 18, in Sense and Sensibility:
      Marianne was surprised and confused, yet she could not help smiling at the quiet archness of his manner
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 29, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      Meanwhile the farce was going on very successfully, and Mrs. Leary, in a hussar jacket and braided pantaloons, was enchanting the audience with her archness, her lovely figure, and her delightful ballads.
    • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
      There was something artless in Toby's delivery; he was working in the family tradition of teasing, but he was too relenting and couldn't yet match Gerald's heavy archness.

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