sluttishness

English

Etymology

From Middle English sluttysshenes, slwttisnes, equivalent to sluttish +‎ -ness.

Noun

sluttishness (usually uncountable, plural sluttishnesses)

1. (chiefly dated) The state or quality of being sluttish (dirty or untidy; disorderly). [from Middle English]
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 198, column 1:

     Well, praiſed be the Gods, for thy foulneſſe; ſluttiſhneſſe may come heereafter.

   • 1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett, White Nights (Constance Garnett translation), page 4:

     I looked at the window, but it was all in vain ... I was not a bit the better for it! I even bethought me to send for Matrona, and was giving her some fatherly admonitions in regard to the spider’s web and sluttishness in general; but she simply stared at me in amazement and went away without saying a word, so that the spider's web is comfortably hanging in its place to this day.

2. (vulgar) The state or quality of being sluttish (like a slut; sexually promiscuous). [from 1945]
   • 1971 May 19, George Oppenheimer, “Pinter’s homecoming”, in Newsday, volume 31, number 218, Garden City, N.Y.; Ronkonkoma, N.Y.: Newsday, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, part II, page 8 A:

     Before long, the wife begins to reveal her sluttishness and, by the time the play is over, she has arranged a satisfactory financial and sexual deal with her in-laws.

   • 2000, Gavin Lambert, “Old Times”, in Mainly About Lindsay Anderson, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 13:

     Far more in demand among the Toughs than I, Rammelkamp was an object of gossip and curiosity among the other boys, who occasionally made fun of his name but not his sluttishness. We once compared notes on our sexual initiations, […]

   • 2003, Jane Moore, “Saturday, 22 June, 2002, 11.55 p.m.”, in The Ex Files, London: Orion Books, →ISBN, page 3:

     She still felt attracted to him, but her desire for him had been outweighed by pangs of guilt about her uncharacteristic sluttishness. Yes, he was gorgeous, sexy, funny and interesting, but he was also a complete stranger and she just didn’t do that sort of thing.