[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being salty or brackish; also fig.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., Ep. Ded. 5. The bitter fountaine Exampeus … with its brackishnes marreth the sweete river Hipanis.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1644), 175. Some of those acts of ours … may at the first Tast have some of the Brackishnes of Sin.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 13. Their Cisterns preserve water (without the least brackishness) always sweet.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 694. Spirituous liquors … used to correct the brackishness of the water.
