Dictionary

sportiveness en · NOUN

Etymology

From sportive + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) the state of being sportive
   • You will see the tame horse in the paddock gallop about for his pleasure, and the wild horse on the prairie will start and run for miles in mere sportiveness. 1890, Theo. Stephenson Browne, In the Riding-School; Chats With Esmeralda:
   • Then he would play with his vixen, she encouraging him with her pretty sportiveness. 1922, David Garnett, Lady Into Fox:
   • OMAR KHAYYAM, astronomer-poet of Persia, born at Naishapur, in Khorassan; lived in the later half of the 11th century, and died in the first quarter of the 12th; wrote a collection of poems which breathe an Epicurean spirit, and while they occupy themselves with serious problems of life, do so with careless sportiveness, intent he on the enjoyment of the sensuous pleasures of life, like an easy-going Epicurean. 1907, Edited by Rev. James Wood, The Nuttall Encyclopaedia:

Forms