undesirableness

undesirable +‎ -ness

undesirableness (countable and uncountable, plural undesirablenesses)

1. (uncountable) The condition or quality of being undesirable.
   • 1668, John Owen, The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of Indwelling-Sin in Believers, London: G. Keith, 1774, Chapter 11, p. 184,

     These are the things that are in the world; from these doth sin take all its baits, whereby it enticeth and entangleth our souls. If the heart be filled with the cross of Christ, it casts death and undesirableness upon them all, it leaves no seeming beauty, no appearing pleasure or comeliness in them.

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 2,

     The undesirableness of any other house in the same neighbourhood for Sir Walter was certainly much strengthened by one part, and a very material part of the scheme, which had been happily engrafted on the beginning. He was not only to quit his home, but to see it in the hands of others; a trial of fortitude, which stronger heads than Sir Walter’s have found too much.

   • 1928, Carter G. Woodson, Negro Makers of History, Washington, D.C.: The Associated Publishers, Chapter 37, pp. 328-329,

     To discredit the Negro officers in general all sorts of reports were circulated as to their undesirableness. In addition to being humiliated, they were sent to labor battalions or to some remote position to please those who could not bear the thought of having Negro officers in their sight.

2. (countable, rare) An undesirable quality or thing.
   • 1884, Katherine Lee, In London Town, Volume I, Chapter 7, p. 128,

     […] Harcourt Street combined within its precincts all the undesirablenesses that had existed separately in all the other streets she had visited. It was old and dirty, noisy yet dull, swarming with children, and overrun with costermongers, hand-organs, and cats.

• undesirability

• desirability
• desirableness