awkness

English

Etymology

From awk +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːknəs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔknəs/, /ˈɑknəs/

Noun

awkness (uncountable)

1. (obsolete, rare) wrongness (awkwardness, sinfulness, or ineptitude).
   • 1592, Phillip of Mornay, chapter XXXII, in Phillip Sidney Knight, Arthur Golding, transl., A Woorke Concerning the Trewneſſe of Chriſtian Religion […] ‎^[1], London: Robert Robinſon, page 512:

     […] but the ſkilfull can woꝛke much vpon little, and by his cunning ouercome the awkneſſe of his ſtuffe:

   • 1655, William Gurnall, “The Saint Must Be Always Ready for Trials”, in The Christian in Complete Armour […] ‎^[2], volume I, London: Blackie and Son, published 1865, page 566:

     So much flesh as is left in a saint, so much awkness and unwillingness to come to God's foot […]

   • 1664, Cotton Mather, Eccleſiaſtes: The life of the Reverend and Excellent Jonathan Mitchel […] ‎^[3], Boston: B. Green and John Allen, page 105:

     The Great Enemies of all Good, Fleſh, Satan, and World, do of all other things, moſt oppose Meditation which ſhowes that there is much Good in it. Fleſh, by Awkness, Giddiness; World, by Diſtractions […]