1660s, "masculinity," from male (adj.) + -ness. By 1890 as "state or quality of being of the male sex."
Entries linking to maleness
male adj.
late 14c., "pertaining to the sex that begets young," as distinguished from the female, which conceives and gives birth, from Old French male, masle "male, masculine; a male" (see male (n.)). The mechanical sense, used for the part of an instrument that penetrates another part, is from 1660s. The meaning "appropriate to men, masculine" is by 1788. The sense of "composed or consisting of men and boys" is by 1680s. Male bonding is attested by 1969.
-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).