[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being expert. † a. Experience, thorough knowledge. Const. of.
1659. B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 302. Their enemies expertnesse of the Countrie troubling their marches.
b. Skill derived from practice; readiness, dexterity. Const. in.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, IV. iii. 202. You shall demaund … what his valour, honestie, and expertnesse in warres.
1682. Norris, Hierocles, 17. Sometimes they are call’d good Demons, because of their great knowledge and expertness in the laws of God.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 286. From it’s expertness in cracking them [it] has obtained it’s name [nuthatch].
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 84. Portland, with … great expertness in business, was no scholar.
1884. Seeley, in Contemp. Rev., Nov., 656. He [Goethe] might pass for a prodigy of literary expertness and versatility.
