[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. The quality or state of being fat.
a. The condition of having the flesh interspersed with fat; plumpness, fullness of flesh, corpulence.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. xvi[i]. 9. Hi habbaþ ealle heora fætnesse … utan bewunden.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 86. If þat þe bodi … ben mene bitwene fatnes & lenenes þat is neiþer to fatt ne to leene.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xvii. (1887), 76. It [wrastling] taketh awaie fatnesse, puffes, and swellinges: it makes the breath firme and strong, the bodie sound and brawnie, it tightes the sinews, and backes all the naturall operations.
1653. Walton, Angler, 187–8. Eeles have all parts fit for generation, like other fish, but so smal as not to be easily discerned, by reason of their fatness.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 177. We can account for the extraordinary fatness of cooks, butchers, and other persons.
1885. Truth, XVII. 28 May, 850/1. I regret having hurt Mrs. Weldon’s feelings by repeating her alleged admission that fatness alone prevented her from continuing to shine as a lyric star. Nobody admires her face and forensic skill and pluck more than I do.
fig. 1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iv. 153.
| For in the fatnesse of this pursie times, | |
| Vertue it selfe, of Vice must pardon begge. |
† b. Typogr. Breadth or thickness. Obs.
1676. Moxon, Print. Lett., 23. Measure the Fatness of the left hand Arch of e in the Parallel of 24, and set off that Fatness from the right hand Arch of e inwards.
† c. Of a tree: Oiliness; juiciness. Of the soil: Unctuous nature; hence, fertility, luxuriance. Obs. exc. in Biblical phraseology.
1382. Wyclif, Rom. xi. 17. Fatnesse of the olyue tree.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 67. In these Ilandes they founde no trees knowen vnto them, but pyne app[l]e trees, and date trees: And those of maruelous heyght and exceding harde, by reason of the greate moystenesse and fatnesse of the grounde, with continuall and temperate heate of the sonne, whiche endureth so all the hole yere.
1611. Bible, Gen. xxvii. 28. God giue thee of the dew of heauen, and the fatnesse of the earth, and plenty of corne and wine.
1727. Arbuthnot, Table of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures, 263. By reason of the fatness and heaviness of the ground Ægypt did not produce … Metals, Wood, Pitch, and some Fruits.
fig. 1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 162. Makynge it to encrease in a spirituall fatnes of deuocyon.
† 2. That which makes fertile; a fertilizing property or virtue; fertilizing matter. Obs.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., XII. 7. Valey ther hilles fattenesse hath rest.
1563. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 16. They [Comets] are said to betoken Drought, Barrenness of the Earth and Pestilence…. Barrenness, because the fatnesse of the earth is drawn up, whereof the Comet consisteth.
1611. Bible, Ps. lxv. 11. Thy paths drop fatnesse.
1692. Bentley, Serm., 5 Dec., 29. Water … to … feed the Plants of the Earth with … the fatness of Showrs.
1738. Wesley, Hymns, Eternal Wisdom, Thee we praise, vii.
| At thy command they sink and drop | |
| Their fatness on the ground. |
† 3. concr. A greasy or oily substance, fat. Obs.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. xvi[i]. 11. Fætnysse heora hi beclysdon.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. lxiii. (1495), 181. In the beest is fatnes that is callyd Adeps, Aruina wythout.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 257. Summe seien þat þe fatnes of grene froggis … haþ vertu for to make men heere.
c. 1430. Stans Puer, 39, in Babees Bk. (1868), 29. In ale ne in wiyn with hond leue no fatnes.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 113. For as the fatnesse of oyle may not burne, tyl a weyke or matche be put therto; ryghte so the moste feruente charite of the father, shone not openly in the world tyl hys sonne had taken to hym a manly body.
1641. French, Distill., iii. (1651), 71. There will distill into the Receiver a fatness.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 547.
| Whose offer’d Entrails shall his crime reproach, | |
| And drip their Fatness from the Hazle Broach. |
fig. a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 90. As wiþ grece and fatnesse fyld be my soule.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 4. This is the iuste vengeance of God, to drawe a fatnesse ouer their hartes.
1611. Bible, Ps. lxiii. My soule shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse.
† b. In the soil. etc.: An unctuous substance; an unctuous layer or deposit. Obs.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 20 b. A kinde of pith and fatnesse of the earth … called Marga. Ibid., 43 b. The fatnesse that the water leaves behinde it.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 355. In the Mixture of Earth and Water; which mingled by the helpe of the Sunne, gather a Nitrous Fatnesse, more than either of them haue seuerally; As we see, in that they put forth Plants, which need both Iuyces.
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., II. ii. 282–3. Chalky Earth, which beaten and steeped in Water, affordeth a Cream or Fatness on the Top, and a gross Subsidence at the Bottom.
† 4. The richest or best part of anything. Obs.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. lxxx[i]. 17. Of fætnysse hwætes.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, cxlvii. 14. And with fattnes of whete filled þe wele.
1644. G. Plattes, in Hartlib, Legacy (1655), 176. Cities, which … devoured the fatness of the whole Kingdom.
1665. Dryden, The Indian Emperor, I. ii.
| Mont. Those ghostly kings would parcel out my pow’r, | |
| And all the Fatness of my Land devour. |
