Thursday 17 March 7-by-many FORESWORN puzzle

[ridethetalk]

SORROWNESS/ES – the exclusion of this is surely an error…

REOFFENSE – the act of reoffending

WOOSE – a timid or feeble person; someone who doesn’t stand up for their principles

SOSSOS – simply look at the definition of sosses (an accepted rare word) – from ancient Greek, a group of sixty e.g. a sossos of seconds is a minute

...and...
...after viewing the solution...
...if forswornness and forswornnesses are words, why aren't FORESWORNNESS and FORESWORNNESSES??? Asking for a friend... 

[blackrockrose]

John, I'd spell it WUSS, not WOOSE.

[Jacki]

Yes. Wuss would be my thinking too.

[ridethetalk]

That is an alternative but a quick check on google shows woose as a possible spelling...

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/woose#:~:text=or%20woose%20(w%CA%8As%20)%20or%20wussy,Collins%20English%20Dictionary.

[Maudland]

SORROWNESS/ES – the exclusion of this is surely an error…

REOFFENSE – the act of reoffending

WOOSE – a timid or feeble person; someone who doesn’t stand up for their principles

SOSSOS – simply look at the definition of sosses (an accepted rare word) – from ancient Greek, a group of sixty e.g. a sossos of seconds is a minute

...and...
...after viewing the solution...
...if forswornness and forswornnesses are words, why aren't FORESWORNNESS and FORESWORNNESSES??? Asking for a friend... 

And SOONNESS too ?!

My hit rate took a bashing because I could quite believe that you could foreswear or forswear, but you can only foresee … 

[Maudland]

I suppose it would be SORROWFULNESS / ES but there’s too many letters, so we’ll never know!

[Alan W]

SORROWNESS/ES – the exclusion of this is surely an error…

This must be some kind of a wind-up, right? Why would sorrowness be a word when we have sorrowfulness? Or simply sorrow, for that matter.

Or so I thought. But it turns out it is a word, dating back to the 1300s. It can be found in the online Oxford. A usage example, via he OED, from Jazz Times magazine in 1996:

You really need to go find Billie Holiday and listen to that sinewy voice, the whine of a violin, the sorrowness of her.

All right. Whatever. But I draw the line at sorrownesses.

[Alan W]

I found reoffense only in Wiktionary, but the word is in use, for example in the New York Daily News on 23 February:

An algorithmic risk assessment tool, of the type successfully adopted in New Jersey, can use offenders’ observed characteristics to predict their violent reoffense risk, agnostic to their race or income.

The alternative spelling reoffence is also in use, mainly outside the USA. I'll add both versions as rare words.

[ridethetalk]

Thanks Alan... 

[Maudland]

SORROWNESS/ES – the exclusion of this is surely an error…

This must be some kind of a wind-up, right? Why would sorrowness be a word when we have sorrowfulness? Or simply sorrow, for that matter.

Or so I thought. But it turns out it is a word, dating back to the 1300s. It can be found in the online Oxford. A usage example, via he OED, from Jazz Times magazine in 1996:

You really need to go find Billie Holiday and listen to that sinewy voice, the whine of a violin, the sorrowness of her.

All right. Whatever. But I draw the line at sorrownesses.

Blinking jazz, improvising with words too!

[Alan W]

Wuss is definitely the usual form of this word. Wuss and wusses are acceptable words in Chi, and indeed are classed as common.

The variant spelling woose is listed in at least one dictionary, as you show, RTT. A usage example is from a 2015 book, Crazy Hamster Adventure, by Millicent Jack:

So Tegan, Asten, Sarah, and Zulaikha all turned around and headed back.
“They're wooses,” said Tommy.
“They are not wooses. You're the woose,” said Matthew.

I'll add woose as a rare word.

[Alan W]

Sossos was raised again later, and dealt with.

[Alan W]

...and...
...after viewing the solution...
...if forswornness and forswornnesses are words, why aren't FORESWORNNESS and FORESWORNNESSES??? Asking for a friend... 

Tell your friend forswornness is in some dictionaries but foreswornness isn't. Possibly related to the fact that foreswear and all its derived terms ore less frequently used.

[ridethetalk]

...and...
...after viewing the solution...
...if forswornness and forswornnesses are words, why aren't FORESWORNNESS and FORESWORNNESSES??? Asking for a friend... 

Tell your friend forswornness is in some dictionaries but foreswornness isn't. Possibly related to the fact that foreswear and all its derived terms ore less frequently used.

You got me chortling again Alan - thanks for your positive consideration of woose... 

[Alan W]

Maudland queried why soonness is not accepted. The word is in Wiktionary and the Shorter Oxford, labeled "now rare". A usage example is from Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence:

He did not sleep well in Australia, it seemed as if the aboriginal daimon entered his body as he slept, to destroy its old constitution. Sleep was almost pain, and too full of dreams. This night he woke almost at once from a vivid little dream. The fact of the soonness troubled him too, for at home he never dreamed till morning.

Soonness will be added as a rare word.