leisureliness

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English leisurely Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English leisureliness From leisurely + -ness.

1. The property of being leisurely.

   “[…] their Local Motion […] is neither by Fins nor Wings, as in Fishes or Birds, who are fain to sustain themselves by these instruments from sinking to the bottome of either Element: but it is meerly by the direction of the agitation of the particles of their Vehicle toward the place they aime at; and in such a swiftness or leasureliness as best pleases themselves, and is competible to their natures.”

   “[…] he frequently commenced a long-winded narrative of his own accord,—repeated at length the tradition of some old battle, or some passage in the recent history of his tribe in which he had acted a prominent part, from time to time drawing a long breath, and resuming the thread of his tale, with the true storyteller’s leisureliness, perhaps after shooting a rapid,—prefacing with “we-ll-by-by,” &c., as he paddled along.”