the.com/paleness

means The quality of having unusually pale skin, often from fear, illness, shock, or lack of sunlight.

from From 'pale,' borrowed via Old French 'pale/palle' from Latin 'pallidus' (pale, wan), itself from the verb 'pallere,' to be pale or grow pale — a root that also gave us 'pallid' and 'pallor.' The '-ness' is just the ordinary English suffix turning a quality into a noun, so the word has been quietly describing drained faces since Latin speakers first needed a word for looking washed out.