clamminess en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈklæminəs/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree English clammy Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English clamminess From clammy + -ness.
Meanings
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(uncountable) The state of being clammy.
Bread made of Pannick nouriſheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hauing in it neither clammineſſe, nor fatneſſe; and therefore it drieth a moiſt belly.
1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book I, page 79:In that a Snayl or Dodman, vvhich is not only not vvarm, but to our feeling, very cold, is fain to brood its as cold svveatty eggs, neſted upon a cold vvet earth, beſpievving them about vvith the fuzze of a cold clammy froth, in coldish [d]raughty vveather, and all making vvay to a kind and timely hatching of them: […] I dare undertake to light ſooner of that vvarmth and reek and air, that vvill hatch an hens egge, than that cold and devv and clammineſs, that goes to the hatching of a ſnails.
1674, N[athaniel] Fairfax, chapter V, in A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World. Wherein the Greatness, Littleness and Lastingness of Bodies are Freely Handled. […], London: […] Robert Boulter, […], →OCLC, pages 125–126:He vanished over the rock and Bradly struggled up into his place. Down in a crevasse the trooper was tugging at something wedged there, which looked like a sodden bundle of old rags till it was pushed up the rock to Bradly, who had to quell repugnance and take a grip of it. Under his hands it had the unstable clamminess of all dead flesh.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 220: