[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being wholesome, in any sense.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 103. On þat wise lið ure helende on his heorte, alse on sepulcre, and swiȝeð of holsumnesse lore toȝenes him, forte þat on þen þridde dai, þat is hearte be liht.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 239. Ȝif þei loueden treuþe of god … as moche as þei louen helþe of here body & holsumnesse of here bodily mete.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xxi. (Bodl. MS.). Water þat renneth … vpon cleere stones oþer grauel haþ þe secunde holsumnes.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 94 b. In meats the wholsomenesse is as much to be required as the pleasantnesse.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 16 b. The holsomnesse of the ayer in other countries.
1616. Purchas, Pilgrimage, V. vii. (ed. 3), 588. This yeeldes not to any Indian Region, in goodlinesse and wholesomenesse.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 375. Malt liquor is not so frequently used, as its wholesomeness deserves.
1807. Southey, Lett. to G. C. Bedford, 4 Oct. The bitterness of the cup will have passed away, and you will then perceive its wholesomeness.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 333. Not only to the repair of the roads themselves, but to … the safety, wholesomeness, and comfort of the passage along them.
1906. Lit. World, 15 Nov., 517/2. The general wholesomeness of Dr. Gladden’s position is … beyond cavil.
