woodness

English

Etymology

From Middle English woodnesse, wodnesse, from Old English wōdnes, corresponding to wood (“mad, insane”) +‎ -ness.

Noun

woodness (uncountable)

(obsolete) Madness, fury.
- 1567, Ovid, “The Fyft Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC:
  […] This sodaine chaunge from feasting vnto fray
  Might well be likened to the Sea: whych standing at a stay
  The woodnesse of the windes makes rough by raising of the waue.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 567:
  […] with fell woodnes he effierced was,
  And wilfully him throwing on the gras
  Did beat and bounse his head and brest ful sore […] .

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