heaviness

From Middle English hevinesse, from Old English hefiġnes (“heaviness”). Equivalent to heavy +‎ -ness.

heaviness (countable and uncountable, plural heavinesses)

1. The state of being heavy; weight, weightiness, force of impact or gravity.
2. (archaic) Oppression; dejectedness, sadness.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:

     First got with guile, and then preseru'd with dread, / And after spent with pride and lauishnesse, / Leauing behind them griefe and heauinesse.

3. (obsolete) Drowsiness.
   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene ii:

     Miranda: The strangeness of your story put / Heaviness in me.

• evanishes