saltness

From Middle English saltenesse, saltnesse, from Old English sealtnes (“saltness”), equivalent to salt +‎ -ness.

saltness (uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being salt; saltiness.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your health.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 9:50:

     Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it?

   • c. 1752, Elizabeth Moxon, “124. To make a Herring Pye of white salt Herrings”, in English Housewifry‎, Leeds, page 72:

     Take five or six salt Herrings, wash them very well, lay them in a pretty Quantity of Water all Night to take out the Saltness […]

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 190–191:

     'Tis strange the strength which mingles with our weakness, that even in the suffering which sends the tear to the eye—not to be shed, but there to lie in all its burning and saltness—which swells in the throat but to be forced down again, like nauseous medicine; even in this deep and deadly suffering, vanity finds a trophy of power over which to exult.

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part I, page 13:

     The sea, perhaps because of its saltness, roughens the outside but keeps sweet the kernel of its servants' soul.

   • 1919, Ernest Shackleton, chapter 8, in South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition, 1914-1917‎, London: Heinemann, page 137:

     We were dreadfully thirsty now. We found that we could get momentary relief by chewing pieces of raw seal meat and swallowing the blood, but thirst came back with redoubled force owing to the saltness of the flesh.

• Stansels, lastness