"heedfulness, attention. state of being attentive," mid-15c., from attentive + -ness.
Entries linking to attentiveness
attentive adj.
late 14c., "heedful, observant" (implied in attentively), from Old French atentif "expectant, hopeful," from past-participle stem of Latin attendere "give heed to" (see attend). The sense of "actively ministering to the needs and wants" (of another person) is from early 16c.
-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).