[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The fact or state of being something; real or material existence, entity.
1675. T. Duffett, Mock Tempest, V. i. The nothingness of the Mouse,… the somethingness, yea the fullness of it.
1760–2. Goldsm., Cit. World, xiv. What an unusual share of somethingness in his whole appearance!
1839–48. Bailey, Festus, xix. 204. A star falls, and we track a cold dark mass Of trembling half-transparent somethingness.
1890. Samuel Butler, in Universal Rev., 15 June, 246–7. The stages … have invariably been from a nothingness of ignorant impotence, to a little somethingness of highly self-conscious, arduous performance.
