[f. prec. + -NESS.]
1. Unsound or impaired health; unhealthiness.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xiii. 68. Thanne thou etist hony aloon…. And this feding schal turn into thin vnhoolsumnes.
2. Unhealthy character (of locality, climate, air, etc.); insalubrity, unhealthfulness.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 377. By reason of ye vnholsomnes of the countre.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 396. The vnwholesomnesse of the aire, and corruption of the waters in the hote time of the yeere.
1623. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1908), II. 181. The unholsomnes of this clymeatt.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 777. The Wholesomenesse or Vnwholesomenesse, as well of Seasons, as of the Seats of Dwellings.
1697. Walsh, Life Virgil, ¶ 2, in Dryden’s Virgil. The Unwholsomness of his Native Air.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 65/1. The damps … will come to you with double … unwholsomness.
1758. in Dodsley, Fug. Pieces (1761), II. 84. The Unwholesomeness of the Rust and Verdegrease Suffusions.
a. 1843. Southey, Common-pl. Bk., Ser. II. (1849), 245/2. In the unwholesomeness of this shade the tree … could not possibly flourish.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 42/1. The unwholesomeness of sewage.
3. The state or quality of being unwholesome as, or unfit for, food, etc.
1548. Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI., c. 10 § 1. The unholsomenes of the drincke … made thereof.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xiv. 249. Iudging … of the wholsomnes or vnwholsomnes of foode by the taste thereof.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter, ii. 20. The unwholesomenesse of his dyet.
1651. Stanley, Poems, 37. Th’ unwholsomnesse of fruit.
1863. N. & Q., 3rd Ser. Iv. 249. The Scottish objection to eels as an article of food is mainly due to their supposed unwholesomeness.
4. Lack of moral wholesomeness; viciousness.
1881. Sat. Rev., 15 Jan., 88/2. Happily its unwholesomeness is often lessened by the folly of the language into which the author falls.
1897. Advance (Chicago), 25 March, 389/1. The absence of [disapprobation of sinners] … is a sure sign of unwholesomeness and decay.
