[f. LIGHTSOME a.1 + -NESS.] The quality of being lightsome or not heavy; † easiness (obs.), liveliness, cheerfulness, etc.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 304/2. Lyghtesumnesse, or esynesse, facilitas.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxvii. (1887), 154. By lightsomnesse or heauinesse in learning, by easinesse or hardnesse in retaining.
1617. J. Moore, Mappe Mans Mortalitie, II. vii. 148. Though the heavy burden of our sinfull flesh doe load vs, yet lightsomnesse it is to a Christian to thinke that the way is not long.
1632. trans. Bruel’s Praxis Med., 200. There is no paine, but rather a lightsomnes of the body.
1668. G. C., in H. More, Div. Dial., Pref. (1713), vi. That versatility of Wit, and lightsomeness of Humour.
1829. Westm. Rev., X. 428. The ‘Misfortunes of Elphin’ … lacks lightsomeness, grace, and invention.
1876. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. II. 138. Drayton … had an agreeable lightsomeness of fancy.
1880. Jessie Fothergill, Wellfields, III. xi. 250. She … was astonished at the sudden lightsomeness of heart which she felt.
1885. Pater, Marius the Epicurean, II. 69. Dainty as that old divinely constructed armour of which Homer speaks, but without its miraculous lightsomeness.
