sageness
(ˈseɪdʒnɪs)
[f. sage a. + -ness.]
The quality of being sage; profound wisdom.
| 1509 Watson Ship of Fools xxxiv. (1517) H vij, He is a foole without sagenesse. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. xiv. (1541) 24 A man..whom for his great witte and sagenes in apparance, the Emperour had in syngular fauour. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. v. 196 The sagenesse, civility, thrift, abstinence, and such like personated parts and customes at home, will be all laid aside. 1755 Johnson, Sageness, gravity, prudence. 1814 Coleridge Let. to J. Kenyon (1895) 640 Public prudence and practical sageness. 1907 Q. Rev. Oct. 365 If we [sc. Confucians] could renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom it would be better for the people a hundredfold. |