[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The state of being forlorn (see the adj.).
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, lxxxvii. 12. In forlorenisse [Vulg. in perditione].
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 110. Vor hore uorlorennesse þet drowen him to deaðe.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 160/2. Albeit there be at this day an horrible forlornenesse, so that it may well seeme that we are verie miserable creatures, vtterly cast away and condemned.
1668. H. More, Div. Dial., II. xv. (1713), 135. The forlornness and desolateness of that forsaken Habitacle, the Body of a natural Fool.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, ii. Adeline felt the forlornness of her condition with energy.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., II. xvii. 58. The beautiful vegetation immediately about it, added to the bare hills in the background, completes this look of forlornness, and produces an effect like that of the grass growing in the streets of a metropolis.
