populousnessn.

1601 R. Johnson tr. G. Botero Trauellers Breuiat 39 Constantinople exceedeth all the cities in Europe in populousnes.

1671 E. Chamberlayne Angliæ Notitia (ed. 5) ii. 281 Lastly, Very remarkable also is..the frequency, populousness, and wealthiness of the Villages.

1725 W. Gibson Hist. Affairs Europe 58 Whatever may be objected concerning the populousness of France.

1754 D. Hume Hist. Great Brit. I. 129 England has probably, since that time [i.e. 1583], increased much populousness.

1857 E. C. Gaskell Life C. Brontë I. viii. 197 Mr. Brontë found it necessary, either from failing health or the increased populousness of the parish, to engage the assistance of a curate.

1884 Spectator 4 Oct. 1289/2 A bare fact, as much outside discussion as..the populousness of London.

1942 Times 6 Jan. 5/3 Since the days when Marco Polo marvelled at the populousness of her cities and her teeming countryside.

1945 B. Russell Hist. Western Philos. xxx. 292 Pagans, as well as Christians, came to glorify ugliness and dirt. Justin the Apostate, like contemporary orthodox saints, boasted of the populousness of his beard.

1993 F. Delaney Walk to Western Isles (BNC) 116 The police, patrolling numerously, said this midnight populousness was not uncommon in Aberdeen.

1651 More Lett. Scotl. 6 I was this day in Fife and viewed our Camp, which looks like a Fair for populousnesse of Souldiers.

1683 W. Cave Ecclesiastici 361 The temperature of its Air, fertility of Soyl,..and populousness of its Inhabitants.

1759 W. Harte Hist. Life Gustavus Adolphus I. 430 Though one half of the country be wild, woody, and scantily peopled,..yet the other half..vies with any tract or territory in the empire, both for populousness of inhabitants, and for a plentiful supply of corn and forage.

1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. I. 127 From the Populaceness of the Inhabitants several Families reside in a House.

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick cv. 514 Natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness of the more enormous creatures of the globe, [etc.].

1881 R. Jefferies Wood Magic I. viii. 218 The wood-pigeons..were continually being increased both by their own populousness and by the arrival of fresh bands.