rankness

Etymology

From rank + -ness.

noun

1. The quality of being rank, of having a repulsive or pungent odor.
   1578, Raphael Holinshed et al., Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, Volume I, Book 3, Chapter 1 “Of cattell kept for profit,” p. 222, […] the bowels of the beast are commonlie cast awaie because of their ranknesse […]
   A match scratched and the sweet rankness of his corn-cob pipe drifted through the rooms. 1933, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 34, in South Moon Under
2. Exuberant or uncontrolled growth.
   Tam’d us to Manners, when the Stage was rude; 1706, John Dryden, “To my Dear Friend Mr. Congreve, On His Comedy, call’d, The Double-Dealer” in The Double Dealer by William Congreve, London: Jacob Tonson, Like Janus he the stubborn Soil manur’d, With Rules of Husbandry the Rankness cur’d
   […] a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far over-topped their neglected growth; yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a wealthy soil, that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable circumstances. 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter 18, in Wuthering Heights
   […] briar and bramble shoots lay athwart one’s path with thorns like arrowheads often concealed in tangles of grass and willowherb and cow parsley, while underlying this rankness, like a reminder of a more elegant epoch, one was aware at times of Howard’s cultivation, rose and magnolia and peony continued to flower […] 1970, Barry Unsworth, The Hide, New York: Norton, published 1997, page 139
3. (obsolete) Exuberance, excessiveness.
4. (obsolete) Insolence.