Why “valetudinariness” is a great word
VALETUDINARINESS — [Noun] A state of chronic, feeble health or infirmity. From the English adjective *valetudinary* (meaning "sickly, infirm," itself from Latin *valetudinarius*, "pertaining to ill health," from *valetudo*, "state of health, illness") + the noun-forming suffix *-ness* (denoting a state or condition). First attested in 1742 in the writing of George Cheyne. Unlike "valetudinarianism" (which suggests a morbid preoccupation with one's ailments) or "robustness" (which signifies vigorous strength), valetudinariness is the quiet, objective fact of being perpetually unwell. It is the constant chill that demands a shawl in summer, the careful, practiced slowness with which one lifts a teacup, and the weary warmth of a body that knows its own fragility as its only constant—a life lived in the minor key of perpetual convalescence.