bleakness

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bleak1

▶adjective

• 1 bare and exposed to the elements: a bleak moor.

  ■ charmless and inhospitable; dreary.

  ■ (of the weather) cold and miserable.

• 2 (of a situation) not hopeful or encouraging.

– derivatives
bleakly adverb,
bleakness noun.

– origin OE blāc ‘shining, white’, or from ON bleikr; ult. of Gmc origin and rel. to bleach.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bleak2

▶noun a small silvery river fish of the carp family. [Alburnus alburnus and other species.]

– origin C15: from ON bleikja.