What does salubriousness mean?
Salubriousness is a formal noun meaning the quality of being salubrious: wholesome, health-giving, or beneficial. It is especially used when describing the favorable effects of a climate, landscape, environment, diet, or way of life on a person's health or well-being. The word has an elevated, traditional character and is more likely to appear in descriptive writing than in ordinary conversation. In modern usage, salubriousness can suggest not merely the absence of disease but a positive, restorative quality, as in the salubriousness of fresh air or mild weather. Although less common than the adjective salubrious, it is useful in formal prose when a writer wants to name the specific quality that makes something wholesome or beneficial.
nounThe quality or condition of being salubrious; healthiness, wholesomeness, or beneficialness, especially of an environment, climate, or practice.
- The quality or condition of being salubrious, especially the healthiness or beneficial character of an environment, climate, or practice.
"The salubriousness of the countryside made it an ideal place for the family to recover."
"Visitors came for the salubriousness of the mountain air."
"The physician praised the salubriousness of her patient's daily routine."
The plural is uncommon because the word itself is uncommon and normally used in the singular.
"The study compared the salubriousnesses of several rural and urban environments."
Salubriousness is the unusually formal name for the health-giving quality of a place, climate, or way of life.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does salubriousness come from?
Salubriousness is derived from the adjective salubrious, which comes from Latin salubris, meaning healthy, wholesome, or beneficial. The Latin root salus or salus, meaning health, safety, and welfare, also underlies related English words such as salutary and salubrity. The suffix -ness forms the modern noun salubriousness from the adjective.
Related word forms
How salubriousness is actually used
Formal and literary. It is much less common in modern everyday English than the adjective salubrious or the noun health.
Easily confused with salubriousness
Salubrity is the condition of being salubrious, while salubriousness explicitly refers to the quality or character of being salubrious.