quaintnessn.

c1390 in C. Horstmann Minor Poems Vernon MS (1892) i. 69 (MED) Fraus est imminuta..Heil þou..Þorwh whos help þe queyntenesse Of þe fend is lutled ay.

a1450 (a1400) Titus & Vespasian (BL Add. 36523) l. 1560 Heraudes herd of Pilate þis fame, And of his quoyntenesse [v.r. queyntise]and of his name.

1483 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 89074) (1881) 296 A Qwhayntnes, wylynes.

1521 tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Cyte of Ladyes sig. Pvi I shall not excuse them that be curyous and quaynte of theyr aray For without fayle that vyce and not lytell ne no quayntenesse out of estate that perteyneth to euery persone to bere is not without blame.

1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. i. xxv. 80 Al nicenesse and quaintnesse in clothing.

1620 I. V. tr. P. du Moulin Serm. 11 A vulgar stile, destitute of quaintnesse and eloquence.

1676 T. Mace Musick's Monument xxiv. 113 You must know, That such kind of Come-offs, as These, are accounted Quaintnesses, or Elegancies; and in Play, Esteemed very Credible, in the Performer.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 234 Some make the quaintness of their wit, to consist in employing bad Instruments.

1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. 72 Coke; a man of infinite learning..though not a little infected with the pedantry and quaintness of the times he lived in.

1817 W. Hazlitt Characters Shakespear's Plays 265 There are passages of high poetical spirit, and of inimitable quaintness of humour, which are undoubtedly Shakespear's.

1832 L. Hunt Poems Pref. 15 The occasional quaintnesses..which formerly disfigured the story of Rimini.

1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Felix Holt II. xxiii. 122 There's a simplicity and quaintness about the letter that rather pleases me.

1938 Amer. Home Oct. 13/1 If Early American things have been your preference, you will find a similar charm and quaintness in Swedish Modern.

1997 P. Cornwell Unnatural Exposure xii. 288 I had been inside the old Sussex County Courthouse many times over the years, and had grown fond of its antebellum quaintness and inconveniences.