[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
The formation is more common as a second element in combs. as base-, high-, low-, mean-, narrow-, poor-, public-spiritedness.
† 1. Spiritual state or condition. Obs.–1
1681. C. Taylor, Ep. Caution to Friends, 11. The ruin … of his Soul forever, and the Souls of all, who in this Spiritedness adhere to him.
2. The character or quality of being spirited, lively or animated; liveliness, vivacity.
1704. Penn, in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 356. I desire … my officers will take a little more spiritedness and quickness upon them.
1834. New Monthly Mag., XLI. 318. The unostentatious spiritedness, the tranquil but forcible truth of their character.
1853. Bagehot, Lit. Stud. (1911), I. 131. In spiritedness, the style of Shakespeare is very like to that of Scott.
1880. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 215. Her natural spiritedness detested the monotony.
