sickness
/ˈsɪknɪs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.83 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The analogical misuse of a rarer or marked grammatical case in the place of a more common or unmarked case.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "I do lament the sickness of the king."
- "18th century, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Miss Blount Trust not too much your now resistless charms; Those, age or sickness soon or late disarms."
- "Sickness is a dangerous indulgence at my time of life."
- "We can now return to the question of how we treat the phenomenon of dative sickness (the possibility of substituting dative in place of accusative on the experiencer nominal) in Icelandic."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English sikness, from Old English sēocnes, sēocness, sēocnys, sēocnyss. By surface analysis, sick + -ness.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sikness, sēocnes