buxomnesse

• boxomnesse, boxsumnes, buxumnesse
• buhsumnesse (Early Middle English); buxomnes (Late Middle English)
• boȝsamnesse (Kent); bocsomnesse, bocsumpnesse, boxumnes, boxumnesse (West Midland)
• boghsomnes, bousomnes, bowsoumness, bowsumnes, buxsomnes, buxsumnes, buxumnes (Northern)

From buxom (“obedient, humble”) +‎ -nesse (“-ness”). First attested in c. 1175.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbuksumˌnɛs(ə)/
• IPA^(key): /ˈbu(ː)xsumˌnɛs(ə)/ (early West Midlands)
• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔxsamˌnɛs(ə)/ (Kent (Aȝenbite))
• IPA^(key): /ˈbuː(x)sumˌnɛs/, /ˈbɔu̯(x)sumˌnɛs/ (Northern)

buxomnesse (uncountable)

1. Humility, meekness; being humble.
2. Obedience, submissiveness; being obedient or unassertive.
   • c. 1370, [William Langland], “[Passus 1]”, in Petrus plowmon (V, A-text), Worcestershire, published c. 1390, folio 395, verso, column 2; republished as Bodleian Library MS. Eng. poet. a. 1, Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 10 January 2019:

     ¶ Lucıfer w^t legıoũs. lerede hıt ın heuene / He was louelokeſt of sıht. aftur vr loꝛd. / Tıl he bꝛak Boxũnes. þoꝛw boſt of hım seluen

     "Lucifer with his legions learned this in heaven; / he was the most pleasing to see after our Lord, / until he broke [his] obedience due to his pride."

3. Kindness, benevolence; being gracious or generous.

• English: buxomness

• “buxǒmnes(se, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “buxomness, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.