heaviness

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛvɪnəs/

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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.

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