sickerness

English

Etymology

From Middle English sikirnes, sikernesse, Old English sicornes (“certainty; secureness”), equivalent to sicker (“secure”) +‎ -ness.

Noun

sickerness (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) the state, condition, or quality of being certain; certainty; assurance.
2. (archaic) security; safety; freedom from danger.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Lightly she leaped, as a wight forlore, / From her dull horse, in desperate distresse, / And to her feet betooke her doubtfull sickernesse.

   • 1980, John Skelton, Paula Neuss, Magnificence - Page 215:

     Comprehending the world casual and transitory, Who list to consider shall never be beguiled, If it be regist'red well in memory; A plain example of worldly vainglory: How in this world there is no sickerness, But fallible flattery enmixed with bitterness.