solitariness

plural solitarinesses

1. countableuncountableThe state or quality of being solitary.

   In both a mazefull ſolitarineſſe: / In night of ſprites the gaſtly powers to ſtur, / In thee or ſprites or ſprited gaſtlineſſe: […]

   The New Arcadia

   c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in [Mary Sidney], editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […] [The New Arcadia], 3rd edition, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 96, page 564

   3 more examples

   I saw a Deane of S. Hillarie of Poictiers, reduced by reason and the incommoditie of his melancholy to such a continuall solitarinesse, that when I entered into his chamber he had never removed one step out of it in two and twenty yeares before[…].

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   […]but if alone or idle, tormented instantly again; one day's solitariness, one hour's sometimes, doth them more harm, than a week's physic, labour, and company can do good.

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Immoderate Exercise a cause, and how. Solitariness, Idleness”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, Gutenberg edition, Project Gutenberg, published 2004, partition 1, section 2, member 2, subsection 6

   So much as doing good is better than not doing evil, will I account Christian good fellowship better than an eremitish and melancholy solitariness.

   1646, Jos[eph] Hall, The Balme of Gilead: Or, Comforts for the Distressed, both Morall and Divine. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher, for Nat[haniel] Butter, →OCLC

   Synonyms: aloneness, isolation, aloneness, isolation, loneliness, loneness, onehead, oneship