Dictionary

aboutness en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /əˈbaʊt.nəs/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *ana- Proto-West Germanic *ana- Old English on-? Proto-West Germanic *bī Proto-West Germanic *bi- Proto-Indo-European *úd Proto-Germanic *ūt Proto-West Germanic *ūtō Proto-West Germanic *ūtan Proto-West Germanic *biūtan Old English būtan Old English onbūtan Middle English aboute English about Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English aboutness From about + -ness.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The relevance of a text to its reader.
   • The experience of attending to how a good film works is a matter of understanding the composition and the inexhaustible flow of "aboutnesses," relevancies to the world that emerge from the interaction of qualities of meaningfulness that attend such a web of forms and connotations, such a design. 1982, William Cadbury, Leland A. Poague, Film Criticism: A Counter Theory, →ISBN, page 19:
   • Movie critics provide a good example of aboutness judgments. When some critics rave and others pan, it is not because they have seen different physical texts; rather, all the technical knowledge, topical knowledge, emotions and beliefs of each critic are being engaged in the construction of a response to the physical text. 1996, Brian C. O'Connor, Explorations in Indexing and Abstracting, →ISBN, page 147:

Forms