Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The propensity to love, or to the gratification of the sexual passions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Phren.) The faculty supposed to influence sexual desire; propensity to love.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or quality of being amative; propensity to love or sexual feelings.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the arousal of feelings of sexual desire

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From amative +‎ -ness.

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Examples

  • "That's it," said Mrs. Gubbins; "they call it number one, sometimes; I suppose amativeness is Latin for number one.

    Handy Andy, Volume One A Tale of Irish Life, in Two Volumes Samuel Lover 1832

  • There may be some doubt whether the function called amativeness is located in the cerebellum at all; at least, it is perfectly certain that amativeness is not the exclusive function of the cerebellum.

    Plain Facts for Old and Young John Harvey Kellogg 1897

  • How should she know that his indifference was often a victory over himself, as his amativeness was a defeat?

    The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes Israel Zangwill 1895

  • How should she know that his indifference was often a victory over himself, as his amativeness was a defeat?

    Merely Mary Ann Israel Zangwill 1895

  • There may be some doubt whether the function called amativeness is located in the cerebellum at all; at least, it is perfectly certain that amativeness is not the exclusive function of the cerebellum.

    Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life. 1877

  • They were those of a woman endowed with an abundance of health and energy, eyes that were full of what the old character readers used to call "amativeness," denoting a nature capable of intense passion, whether of love or hate.

    Gold of the Gods 1908

  • Now it happened that while his centre of amativeness was pronounced, it had lain mute and passive during the years he lived on moose and salmon and chased glowing

    Jack London Play:The Scorn of Women 2010

  • Now it happened that while his centre of amativeness was pronounced, it had lain mute and passive during the years he lived on moose and salmon and chased glowing

    THE SCORN OF WOMEN 2010

  • The world shows that while women have more philoprogenitiveness, men have more amativeness; otherwise the latter would not propose and would nurse the doll and baby.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • He had enough of amativeness to give him a proper appreciation of women and the delights of sociability, but his love manifested itself more through the intellect than the passions, and his social nature was of that diffusive character which manifests itself in the formation of popular attachment rather than exclusive friendships.

    How to Become Rich A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and Matrimony William Windsor

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