pursiness

English edit

Etymology edit

pursy +‎ -ness

Noun edit

pursiness (uncountable)

The state of being pursy.
1. Shortness of breath, especially due to fatness.
  - 1649, Charles Hoole, An Easie Entrance to the Latine Tongue‎^[1], London: Joshuah Kirton, II. A Vocabulary of the most common words English and Latine, 21. Of Diseases, page 218:
    pursiness, Asthma, ǎtis. f.
  - 1838, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 2nd edition, 1843, No. I, “The Swell and the Surrey,” p. 6,^[2]
    […] any slight degree of pursiness that the good steeds may have acquired by standing at livery in Cripplegate, or elsewhere, is speedily pumped out of them by a smart brush over the turf […]
2. Fatness, obesity.
  - 1595, Thomas Lodge, A Fig for Momus, Epistle VI, cited in J. W. Lever, The Elizabethan Love Sonnet, London: Methuen, 1966, p. 150,^[3]
    You pray me to aduise, and tell you what
    
    Will take away your pursiness and fat,
  - 1872, C. H. Cleaveland, Pronouncing Medical Lexicon‎^[4], 14th edition, Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, page 202:
    PURSINESS, […] obesity.
  - 1906, Florence Parsons (as “Mrs. Clement Parsons”), Garrick and His Circle, London: Methuen, p. 131,^[5]
    Hogarth’s fine portrait of him, […] recently acquired by the National Gallery, suggests the double chin and general pursiness of the bon vivant.
3. The state of being puckered.
  - 1969, Susan Morrow, chapter 13, in A Season of Evil‎^[6], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 120:
    When he smiled, the slight pursiness of his mouth disappeared, and a markedly irregular front tooth gave him a boyish air.
  - 2000, Miranda Jarrett, chapter 4, in Starlight‎^[7], New York: Sonnet Books, page 57:
    […] as his lips pressed down upon hers, coaxing them to abandon their pursiness and relax, she gave a little moan of surprise.

References edit

“pursiness”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.