Etymology

-ness

Today it means: Appended in general, often informally, stylistically, or jocularly, for reification of an attribute. Full definition →

Middle English -nes ← Old English -nis ← Proto-West Germanic *-nassī
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-inassuz
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*-nassī
  3. Old English · inherited from-nis
  4. Middle English · inherited from-nes
  5. English today-ness

From Middle English -nes, -nesse, from Old English -nis, -nes, from Proto-West Germanic *-nassī, from Proto-Germanic *-inassuz. This suffix was formed already in Proto-Germanic by false division of the final consonant *-n- of the preceding stem + the actual suffix *-assuz. The latter was in turn derived from an earlier *-at(s)-tuz, from the verbal suffix *-at-janą + the noun suffix *-þuz. Compare German -nis and Dutch -nis of the same origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.