rare. [f. as prec. + -NESS.] Comparative quality.
1825. Phrenological Jrnl., III. 117. They are not like polished lances, strong and light; then we have Comparativeness,—they are like clumsy batons in a bloodless affray.
1876. Lady Lytton, Shells fr. Sands of Time, 93 (title of ch.), On the Comparativeness of Greatness.
1882. Athenæum, No. 2833. 186/3. Its [Mrs. Oliphant’s In Trust] interest turns on the contrast between the noble simplicity of Anne, who is as royal as her name, and the ‘comparativeness’ of Mr. Cosmo Douglas, the rising man of business and conventional clubbist.
1876. $am Rud Cook, T. R., $10.000 For Mss. Rejection Slips, 27. “Then we are pestered in every county with the ‘cattle king,’ the ‘horse king,’ the ‘hog king,’ and even the ‘billy-goat king,’ or the ‘mustache king’ if one wears whiskers as elongated as Kaiser Bill.”
“That’s true, only so far as comparativeness of the word is concerned. There is here no actual king degree,” argued Sedan.
