"state of being free from dirth or filth; habit of keeping clean," early 15c., from cleanly + -ness.
Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness. [John Wesley, Sermon "On Dress," c. 1791]
Entries linking to cleanliness
cleanly adj.
Old English clænlic "morally pure, innocent," from clæne (see clean (adj.)). Of persons, "habitually clean," from c. 1500.
-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).