Meaning

noun the taste experience when sugar dissolves in the mouth

noun the property of tasting as if it contains sugar

noun a pleasingly sweet olfactory property

originFrom Middle English swetnes, swetnesse, from Old English swētnes (“sweetness”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōtinassī (“sweetness”), equivalent to sweet + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian swietens (“sweetness”), obsolete Dutch zoetenis (“sweetness”), Old High German swuoznessi, suoznessi (“sweetness”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0