sickness
(ˈsɪknɪs)
Forms: see sick a. Also 1 -nysse, 4–5 -nys, -nis; 3–6 -nesse, 3–7 -nes, 5 Sc. -nace.
[f. sick a. + -ness. Cf. obs. Flem. siecktenisse (Kilian).]
1. a. The state of being sick or ill; the condition of suffering from some malady; illness, ill-health.
| α c 967 Canons Edgar §36 We lærað þæt æniᵹ unfæstende man husles ne abiriᵹe, buton hit for ofer-seocnesse sy. a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. xliii. (1883) 209 Þæt god wolde..heo mid mislicre seocnesse æt mannum ᵹenyman. c 1205 Lay. 19303 Octa iherde suggen of seocnesse þas kinges. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 775 God sente on him sekenesse & care. a 1300 Cursor M. 1025 Sekenes suld he neuer drei. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 128 Sche hath seknesse feigned. c 1460 J. Metham Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 155 Yff man or woman take sekenes that day, thei schuld sone recouer. 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 42 §1 To provide..for the helth of man's body whan infirmities and secknes shalhappen. 1565 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 357 Personis that..takis seiknes in thair Hienessis army. 1894 Heslop Northumbld. Gloss. 614 Seekness, sickness. |
| β a 1225 Ancr. R. 188 Al ower wo, sicnesse, & oðerhwat. 13.. Sir Beues 3918 While Saber lai in is siknesse. 1340 Ayenb. 95 Wyþoute steruinge and wyþoute zyknesse and wyþ-oute ealdinge. 1412 26 Pol. Poems xi. 90 Myn enemys y shal..Ȝeue syknes and drede. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 5 b, Whiche..whan we be in sycknes is our medycyne and helth. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 230 b, He is troubled with syckenes. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 173 Noble Anthony, not sickenesse should detaine me. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxviii. 162 When he falleth into sicknesse by the doing of some unlawfull act. 1712 Pope To Miss Blount 60 Those Age or Sickness soon or late disarms. 1772 Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 25 Pangs..occasioned by lingering sickness. 1804 Coleridge Lett. (1895) 451 To whom I owe that my bed of sickness has not been in a house of want. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 825 A languor came Upon him, gentle sickness. |
| γ 13.. Sir Beues 3900 In grete Grese..Saber gret sikenesse tok. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 2 Idel was I neuere..in sikenesse ne in helthe. c 1450 Godstow Reg. 404 To which-so-ever she wold..assigne hit in helth or in sikenesse. c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 27 With sykenesse they dye nat. 1542 Wriothesley Chron. (Camden) I. 140 Toke such a thought and sykenes that he dyed thereof. |
b. transf. and
fig.| a 1340 Hampole Psalter 494 Adam þat broght me in seknes of ded. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 23 Disciplis of Anti⁓crist agreggen þe siiknesse of þer folk. 1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 202 Wyth fastynge is sawid the Sekenys of body, and wyth Prayere the Sekenesse of Sowle. 1491 Chast. Goddes Chyld. 20 They..deye by longe contynuaunce of ghostli siknesse. 1633 Ford Broken Ht. v. ii, Look upon my steadiness, and scorn not The sickness of my fortune. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. iv. 185 For if a depraved Temper be, as it were, the Sickness of the Soul. 1721 Young Revenge ii. i, I urg'd him to it, Knowing the deadly sickness of his heart. |
2. a. A particular disease or malady.
Also
freq. with defining terms, as
falling-,
green-,
horse-,
joint-,
sea-sickness (
q.v.).
| α c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 126 Þanne ys god þæt mann fore-sceawie hwanne seo seocnysse siᵹ. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 103 Þe þrid day of Aduent..Þe kyng a seknes hent. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xi. 44 He was made hale, what sekenes so he had. 1486 Bk. St. Albans a ij, To vnderstonde theyr sekeneses and enfirmitees. 1526 Grete Herball cxxiii. (1529) H ij b, Agaynst sekenesses of the mylt as Plinius sayth. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 5 That sair seiknes, named the sueit of Britannie, cam nevir till ws. |
| β c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 132 Þe bischop thomas lay, In þe syknesse of maldeflanke. 1382 Wyclif John v. 4 He..was maad hool of what euere siknesse he was holdun. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxv. 149 There is noo syknes but that som socours is gyuen therunto. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 82 Every man judged as he thought, and named a sickenes that he knew. 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 52 It is then good for Sciaticus and other colde sickennesses of the ioyntes. 1649 Bp. Reynolds Hosea iv. 75 The healing of a sicnesse by a Physician. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 671 The Causes..Of ev'ry Sickness that infects the Fold. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 199 The Nature of the Sickness will scarce suffer the Patient to remove for the Benefit of the Air. 1849 James Woodman xii, One of those sicknesses of childhood which come and pass away. |
| γ c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 64 (Kölbing), Sone after,..A gret sikenes þe king him toke. 1382 Wyclif Matt. viii. 17 He toke oure infirmytees, and bere oure sykenessis. c 1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 35 Þan owe þe leche..bisily biholde wiþin, and considere if þe sikenes be mortified. 1529 More Dyaloge ii. Wks. 194/2 Saint Roke we sette to se to the great sykenes, bycause he had a sore. 1556 Chron. Grey Friars (Camden) 24 The ix. day of the same monyth [July, 1551] beganne the gret sykenes callyd the swetth. |
b. fig.| 1340 Ayenb. 16 Þanne is hit [pride] þe meste periluse ziknesse. c 1400 Rom. Rose 2644 If evere thou knewe of love distresse, Thou shalt mowe lerne in that siiknesse. 1435 Misyn Fire of Love 65 Þe venemus seyknes of lust. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxv. 8 Ane paralous seiknes is vaine prosperite. 1607 Shakes. Timon v. i. 31 A kinde of Will or Testament Which argues a great sicknesse in his iudgement That makes it. 1719 Young Busiris iii. i, I feel a deadly sickness at my heart. 1872 Morley Voltaire (1886) 11 His was one of the robust and incisive constitutions, to which doubt figures as a sickness. |
c. A defect in wines. (
Cf. sick a. 7.)
| 1674 W. Charleton (title), Mysterie of Vintners, or a brief Discourse concerning the various Sicknesses of Wines. |
d. A disease in sheep; braxy.
| 1794 Stat. Acc. Scotl. XII. 4 Of these, what is called the sickness, is generally the most common and the most fatal. 1822 [see braxy 1]. 1831 Sutherland Farm Rep. 78 in Husb. III. (L.U.K.), An inflammatory disease of the stomach, called ‘sickness’, or ‘braxy’. |
3. A disturbance of the stomach manifesting itself in retching and vomiting.
| 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iii. ix. 145 The sicknes of the sea, wherewith such are troubled as first begin to go to sea, is a matter very ordinarie. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. 306 Sickness is one of the most troublesome symptoms attending a Fever. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1857) 183, I was too much engrossed by the Sickness at my stomach to think of anything else. 1821 Moore Mem. (1853) III. 209 Bessy had been obliged to go to bed from sickness of stomach and head. 1889 D. J. Matthews Dis. Women (ed. 4) xviii. 149 You have here then..sickness, or sickness and vomiting if the pain is severe. |
4. fig. Utter disgust or weariness.
| 1779 F. Burney Diary 13 June, His sickness of the world..grows more and more obvious every day. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Quaker's Meeting, When the spirit is sore fretted, even tired to sickness of the janglings..of the world. |
5. Sickly hue.
| 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps ii. §16. 45 The green and yellow sickness of the false marble. |
6. attrib., as
sickness allowance,
sickness benefit,
sickness insurance,
sickness repentance,
sickness summer,
sickness year.
| 1673 Kirkman Unlucky Citizen A iij b, The late great sickness year 1665. 1674 J. B[rian] Harvest-Home iii. 12 Sickness-repentance will not be enough. 1690 Child Disc. Trade (1698) 28 The foregoing discourse I wrote in the Sickness-summer at my country habitation. 1891 Daily News 28 Jan. 7/1 The altered term of sickness allowance. Ibid., The plaintiff's sickness benefit was liable to immediate cessation. 1911 Q. Rev. July 209 Sickness-insurance. a 1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 745 This sickness insurance provides that if you are sick for ten days or more you are paid at the end of the tenth day and the three waiting days at the beginning are included. |