[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. = FAMILIARITY 4–6. Now rare.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 262. Thorough the familiarnesse of the matter, (in that children are so well acquainted with it, by daily hearing or reading of it) the Greek thereof which is easie of itselfe, will be made yet far more easie to the learner.
a. 1645. R. Heywood, Observations and Instructions, III. lxii. (1869), 55.
| Good thinges wer worse through commones; | |
| Some plants by accident growe wilde; | |
| Neuer was of familiarnes | |
| Contempt esteem’d the proper childe. |
1730–6. in Bailey (folio), Familiarness.
1789. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, April. She does not choose such sort of familiarness.
1854–6. Patmore, The Angel in the House, I. II. xii. (1879), 251.
| Because her womanhood is such | |
| That, as on court-days subjects kiss | |
| The Queen’s hand, yet so near a touch | |
| Affirms no mean familiarness. |
† 2. Suitableness. Obs. rare.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 182–3. It is the fitnesse of the Rite to represent that to which it hath reference, and the familiarnesse of it for their vnderstanding, to whose vse it is offered.
