blessedness
(ˈblɛsɪdnɪs)
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The state of being blessed, esp. with Divine favour; felicity; beatitude. Also concr.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17080 Qua mai tel þe teind part þe blisced-nes o þe! c 1400 Epiph. (Turnb. 1843) 124 We may not haue full the blessednes Of thi vysage nor of thi presence. a 1520 Myrr. Our Ladye 73 Delyuered from the seuen dedly synnes . and so to come vnto the seuen blessednesses. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. ii. 66 He..found the Blessednesse of being little. c 1746 Hervey Medit. (1753) II. 18 An Ante-past of eternal Blessedness. 1823 Lamb Elia (1860) 305, I have a quiet homefeeling of the blessedness of my condition. |
b. single blessedness: used by Shakes. to express ‘divine blessing accorded to a life of celibacy’; hence (more or less jocularly), the unmarried state.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 78 Earthlier happie is the Rose distil'd, Then that which withering on the virgin thorne, Growes, liues, and dies, in single blessednesse. 1823 Lamb Elia (1860) 109 She was one whom single blessedness had soured. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz (1850) 265/1 Single blessedness, as bachelors say, or single cursedness, as spinsters think. |
c. Used as a title of honour. Cf. holiness.
| 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. iii. 94 The Popes began to usurp the Titles of Holiness, and Blessedness. 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. iii. 78 The Landgrave Lewis With humble greetings prays his blessedness To make, etc. |