nonce-wd. [f. EARL sb. + -ISH + -NESS; OE. had eorlisc (= earlish) in the sense ‘noble, like an earl.’] The distinctive quality of an earl.
1872. M. Collins, Two Plunges for a Pearl, III. v. 113–4. ‘I am very free from earlishness.’… ‘Earlishness! I never heard such a word.’… ‘Girl is represented by girlishness; why not earl by earlishness?’ Ibid. (1876), Blacksm. & Schol., II. 120. The Earl had no particular earlishness about him.
