sportivenessn.
/ˈspɔːtᵻvnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈspɔrdɪvnᵻs/ The quality, fact, or condition of being sportive; playfulness.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > playfulness > [noun]
sportfulnessa1586
sportiveness1601
frolicknessa1617
gamesomeness1631
ludibundness1664
playfulness1673
playsomeness1676
friskiness1727
sportability1768
coquetry1794
toyfulness1838
larkiness1896
kittenishness1905
1601 R. Yarington Two Lamentable Trag. sig. E3 Pick out mens eyes, and tell them thats the sport, Of hood-man-blinde, without all sportiuenesse.
1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler 6 Shall I conclude her simple, that has her time to begin or refuse sportivenesse as freely as I myself have? View more context for this quotation
1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. II. 420 The virgin mother's looks most exquisitely express her sweet complacency at their innocent sportiveness.
1779 Mirror No. 2 In the first character I may sometimes indulge a sportiveness to which I am a stranger in the latter.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xviii. 169 Some very pretty sportiveness ensued.
1858 J. Doran Hist. Court Fools 132 The warrant being drawn up in sportiveness, he signed the document.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) V. 223 The young of all creatures..are always..overflowing with sportiveness and delight at something.
1933 M. Moore Let. 2 Mar. in Sel. Lett. (1997) 300 The sportiveness and energy of the Almanacco Letterario are supreme and I am pleased to be included.
1988 J. Barth Floating Opera & End of Road p. vii Machado..taught me..how to combine formal sportiveness with genuine sentiment as well as a fair degree of realism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1601