worldliness

From Middle English worldlynesse, equivalent to worldly +‎ -ness. Compare West Frisian wrâldlikens (“worldliness”), German Weltlichkeit (“worldliness”), Swedish världslighet (“worldliness”).

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

worldliness (countable and uncountable, plural worldlinesses)

1. The quality of being worldly; familiarity with the ways of the world.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Act of Parliament”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 186:

     There was a coarseness in the one which revolted the almost fastidious delicacy of the other; and Lady Marchmont, full of poetry, touched with romance and sentiment, had nothing in common with the harsh and hard worldliness of Lady Mary;...