Nastiness

They neither comb their Head, nor wash their Face, / But think their virtuous Nastiness a grace.

Erasmus ascribes the frequent plagues in England to the nastiness and dirt and slovenly habits among the people. “The floors,” says he, “are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs and cats, and every thing that is nasty.”

[T]he helliſh Noiſe, the Roaring, Svvearing, and Clamour, the Stench and Naſtineſs, and all the dreadful croud of Afflicting things that I ſavv there; joyn'd together to make the Place ſeem an Emblem of Hell itſelf, and a kind of an Entrance into it.

Among current novelists, Martin Amis lacks intellectual force but is well supplied with nastiness, which occasionally resembles humor.

Despite efforts to curb hate speech, eradicate bullying and extend tolerance, a culture of nastiness has metastasized in which meanness is routinely rewarded, and common decency and civility are brushed aside.

Some medical beast had revived Tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness.

During the day, the surrounding blocks are no better, full of cheesy bars, tacky shops and brash, neon nastiness.

If we, who are educated, habitually submit to have copper in our preserves, red-lead in our cayenne, alum in our bread, pigments in our tea, and ineffable nastinesses in our fish-sauce, what can we expect of the poor?

[…] imagine the delights of bathing when the Baths were open to public view, the said public delighting to throw dead cats, offal, and all manner of nastinesses among the bathers!

He’s too thoughtful to pretend he’s speaking for humankind on what passes for a Dan Bern protest song—“Tape” folds in a conversational outreach to a girl (“Baby did you get the tape I sent?”) along with a rundown of various societal nastinesses, including the prescient, “We might get to see World War III by Thanksgiving Day.”