Dictionary

coyness en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kɔɪnəs/
• (US) audio
• /kɔɪnɛs/

Etymology

Etymology tree English coy 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 coyness From coy + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The property of being coy.
   • Former Harvard professor and communist Noel Ignatiev, who co-founded the New Abolitionist Society and founded a journal called Race Traitor, named after a book he coauthored in the mid-1990s, famously advocated for the complete abolition of the white race […] Note a certain coyness about whether this destruction refers to only a white race category or to all white-skinned people. 2024 April 11, Wade Miller, “Policy Brief: The Great Replacement in Theory and Practice”, in Center for Renewing America, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2024:
   • Her coyneſs was conquered by aſſiduity, and at laſt ſhe conſented to reſign the treaſure of her charms to my paſſion. 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 15:

Forms

Translations (1)

de Scheuheit (state of being coy)