[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being wonderful.
† 1. The state of being filled with wonder. Obs. rare.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. ii. (Skeat), l. 14. Angels ben adradde, not by ferdnes of drede,… [but] as [by] affeccion of wonderfulnesse and by service of obedience.
2. Wonderful character, marvelousness.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apoc., 3. He called the Wyze men by a strange starre,… the Gentiles by the wonderfulnesse of Miracles.
1579. Twyne, Phisicke agst. Fortune, I. xxx. 41. What by the wonderfulnesse and number of the woorkes, there was nothyng in all the whole world to be wondred at, but Rome.
1652. French, Yorksh. Spa, iii. 32. The wonderfulnes of the waters that I shall mention, consists … in the strangeness of their colours, tasts, [etc.].
1674. Allen, Danger Enthus., 100. The wonderfulness of his Birth of a Virgin.
1714. Derham, Astro-Theol., IV. ii. (1769), 101. The wonderfulness of the things of the heavens or the earth.
1870. Max Müller, Sci. Relig. (1873), 27. The Buddhist … miracles, which in wonderfulness certainly surpass the miracles of any other religion.
1892. Henley, Song of Sword, Lond. Voluntaries, I. 39. Dispossessed of wonderfulness, they stand Beggared and common.
1908. Athenæum, 22 Aug., 205/1. We do not think that the narrative will help any one to arrive the sooner at a knowledge of the wonderfulness of life.
