marredness

alternative mardness

1. uncountableThe state of being marred or spoilt.

   But the feeling would be much stronger in the case of the marred Visage of Jesus, for the marredness of that Visage is to the Christian a part of its beauty.

   1903, George Matheson, Studies of the Portrait of Christ, page 343

   2 more examples

   I grew familiar with it by dawn-light and candlelight, to value its wan marredness more than beauty, to search for and to find in it that mother-pity which is the gift of so many childless women, and supremely the gift of such as have forsworn marriage from high and selfless motives.

   1911, Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy, Hidden House, page 136

   ... the present flawedness of human nature and the marredness of the physical world were interpreted as following upon a period of paradisal perfection that was brought to an end by a disastrous ancestral act.

   1995, John Polkinghorne, Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue, page 63

2. Northern EnglandrareuncountableOf a person, the state of being marred or cosseted.

   I believe it's nowt nobbut their mardness an' their way o' livin ut causes these New York dolls to be so mich like faded waxwork, ut's been melted down for any sort of a face, fro' a queen to a mermaid.

   1885, Benjamin Brierley, Ab-o'th'-yate in Yankeeland, the results of 2 trips to America, page 43