hevynesse

Middle English

From Old English hefiġnes; equivalent to (and influenced by) hevy +‎ -nesse.

hevynesse (uncountable)

The quality of having great weight; heaviness.
Fulness or sufficiency in quantity; abundance.
Great force or intensity.
Great importance or meaning.
The quality of being difficult to bear or accomplish; burdensomeness.
Slowness or sluggishness of movement.
A lack of vitality due to factors such as fatigue, age, disease or conscience.
(religion) The vice of sloth or idleness.
Woe, sorrow, grief; anxiety, unease.
- c. 1368, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, as recorded c. 1440–1450 in Bodleian Library MS. Fairfax 16, folio 130r:
  Defaulte of slepe and hevynesse / Hath [slayne] my spirite of quyknesse / That I haue loste al lustyhede
  Lack of sleep and sorrow / Have killed the liveliness in my spirit / So that I have lost all enjoyment of life.
Vexation, annoyance; hostility.
(of topic) Gravity, seriousness
A misfortune or grievance.
(of scent) Offensiveness, oppressiveness.
(of sound) Depth, lowness of pitch.
(meteorology) Inclemency.

“hevines(se, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 7 August 2018.

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