late 14c., purenes, purenesse, "freedom from admixture or defilement; spiritual or moral purity," from pure (adj.) + -ness.
Entries linking to pureness
pure adj.
mid-13c., of gold, "unalloyed;" c. 1300 "unmixed, unadulterated; homogeneous," also "total, complete, absolute; bare, mere," also "sexually pure, virgin, chaste" (late 12c. as a surname, and Old English had purlamb "lamb without a blemish"), from Old French pur "pure, simple, absolute, unalloyed," figuratively "simple, sheer, mere" (12c.), from Latin purus "clean, clear; unmixed; unadorned; chaste, undefiled."
This is conjectured to be from PIE root *peue- "to purify, cleanse" (source also of Latin putus "clear, pure;" Sanskrit pavate "purifies, cleanses," putah "pure;" Middle Irish ur "fresh, new;" Old High German fowen "to sift").
It replaced Old English hlutor. The meaning "free from moral corruption" is recorded from mid-14c. In reference to bloodlines, attested from late 15c. In music, "mathematically perfect," by 1872.
-ness
word-forming element denoting action, quality, or state, attached to an adjective or past participle to form an abstract noun, from Old English -nes(s), from Proto-Germanic *in-assu- (cognates: Old Saxon -nissi, Middle Dutch -nisse, Dutch -nis, Old High German -nissa, German -nis, Gothic -inassus), from *-in-, originally belonging to the noun stem, + *-assu-, abstract noun suffix, probably from the same root as Latin -tudo (see -tude).