heaviness

English

Etymology

From Middle English hevynesse, from Old English hefiġnes (“heaviness”). Equivalent to heavy +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛvɪnəs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

heaviness (countable and uncountable, plural heavinesses)

1. The state of being heavy; weight, weightiness, force of impact or gravity.
2. (archaic) Oppression; dejectedness, sadness; low spirits.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     First got with guile, and then preseru'd with dread, / And after spent with pride and lauishnesse, / Leauing behind them griefe and heauinesse.

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     By so much the more shall I to-morrow be at the height of heart-heaviness.

3. (obsolete) Drowsiness.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Miranda: The strangeness of your story put / Heaviness in me.

Translations

weightiness

• Arabic: ثِقَل (ar) m (ṯiqal)
• Armenian: ծանրություն (hy) (canrutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: ağırlıq (az)
• Bulgarian: тежест (bg) f (težest)
• Catalan: pesadesa f
• Classical Nahuatl: etiliztli
• Dutch: zwaarte (nl) f, zwaarheid (nl) f
• French: lourdeur (fr) f
• German: Schwere (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: βαρύτης f (barútēs)

• Ilocano: dagas
• Irish: múisiam m
• Kazakh: зіл (zıl)
• Ladino: pezgades f, pezgor f
• Occitan: pesantor (oc)
• Persian: سنگینی (fa) (sangini)
• Portuguese: peso (pt) m
• Russian: тя́жесть (ru) f (tjážestʹ)
• Spanish: pesadez (es) f
• Tocharian B: krāmär
• Vietnamese: sức nặng, độ nặng

Anagrams

• evanishes