Forms: 6 solytarynes(se, solitarynesse, 6–7 -nes, solitarinesse, 6– solitariness (7 -nes). [f. as prec.]
1. The state of being solitary or alone; the fact of being or dwelling apart from others.
Very common c. 1575–1700, and in the 19th cent.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Golden Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), Dd iv b. Yf thou bee a wydowe of solytarynesse.
1559. Bercher, Nobylytye Wymen (Roxb.), 129. He refusethe cumpanye, and desyrethe solytarynes.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 228. Christian the Elector … was reputed … to affect solitarinesse, and little to be seene of the people.
1663. S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxix. (1665), 344. There is very great use of Solitariness, especially in the beginnings of a New Life.
a. 1707. S. Willard, Body of Divinity (1726), 892/2. Man is made for Society: Solitariness, or living alone being a trespass against Humane Nature.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Angelina, i. (1832), 7. With what soul-rending eloquence does my Angelina describe the solitariness, the isolation of the heart she experiences in a crowded metropolis!
1894. Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone, II. 106. Kate had felt acutely this solitariness in which she lived.
personif. 1601. Sir W. Cornwallis, Ess., I. ix. Solitarinesse the mother of Contemplation.
2. The state or character of being unfrequented, retired or secluded; absence of life or stir.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 159 b. But when … the Cardinals, whiche he had sent thither, aduertised him that there was great solitarinesse,… he deferreth the day of the Counsell till Easter folowyng.
1579. in Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 252. Taking the solitarinesse of the night,… shee fell downe with faith, before the altare.
1609. W. M., Man in Moone (1849), 3. By the solitarinesse of the house I judged it a lodge in a forrest.
1694. Falle, Jersey, i. 26. The solitariness of the Place, and the want of Necessaries,… causing many of them to desert.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xli. The solitariness of the field through which they passed.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xviii. 52. A silence and solitariness which affected everything. Not a human being but ourselves for miles.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 234. The solitariness of the almost deserted avenue, solitariness only occasionally broken in upon by a hired carriage.
personif. 1596. Edw. III., III. iii. 23. Leauing at our heeles A … beaten path For sollitarines to progresse in.
1605. A. Warren, Poor Man’s Passions, liii. What Solitarines hath there assign’de For such, as her Inhabitants shall be.
