[f. EARTHLY a. + -NESS.]
1. The quality of being earthly; the distinctive properties of terrestrial things; worldliness as opposed to heavenliness.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut., cxcvi. 1215/2. When wee goe about to worship him [God], wee imagine not any earthlinesse in him.
1611. Cotgr., Terresterrité … earthlinesse, worldlinesse.
1665. Wither, Lord’s Prayer, 107. They in whom the first natural Earthlyness and will, are predominant.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, I. (1853), 4. Each stain of earthliness Had passed away.
1851. Hawthorne, Twice-told T., II. xiii. 211. For often there was an earthliness in his conceptions.
† 2. = EARTHINESS 1. Obs.
c. 1535. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 920. The one is pure, separate of erthlynesse.
1594. Mirr. Policy (1599), 178. If of an earthly substance wee would make fire, we must first purge and purifie it from the earthlinesse.
1641. French, Distill., v. (1651), 144. It is … the earthlinesse that is so nauseous.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. iv. 371. Vulturs are said to smell the earthlinesse of a dying corps.
