[see -NESS.] Bookish quality; fondness for books or study; learning. (Often somewhat contemptuous.)
a. 1586. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (1622), 521. A chain-shot against all learning or bookishnesse, as they commonly term it.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. Acts, xxvi. 24. Much Learning or Bookishness hath distracted thee.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 210. Diderot despised mere bookishness.
