Ugliness is the quality of being unpleasant to look at. The ugliness of the building, sheer ugliness, ugliness of the scene.
Applied to objects it is a plain judgement about taste, which changes: the buildings one generation condemns for ugliness the next generation protects. Applied to behaviour it means something worse, and the ugliness of a crowd is a warning of violence.
1nounuglinessThe quality of being unpleasant to look at.
“Tourists are often shocked by the ugliness of the concrete towers around the old town.”
ugliness is a quality.
Old Norse
uggligr — fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance
Middle English
ugly
English
ugly
English, today
ugliness
Built from
From ugly + -ness. ugly Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare грозен (< grozьnъ), стра́шный (< strašьnъ < straxъ); foedus (< bʰeyh₂-).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA