keyness en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *kaiju Old English cǣġ Middle English keye English key 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 keyness From key + -ness.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) The degree to which something is key, or important.
The keyness of a summarizing symbol derives from the relative fundamentality (or ultimacy) of the meanings which it formulates, relative to other meanings of the system.
1973, Sherry B. Ortner, “On Key Symbols”, in American Anthropology, volume 75:
-
(uncountable) The statistical significance of a keyword's frequency in a given corpus, relative to a reference corpus.
This was one of the weakest keywords that was found, with a keyness of 24.9.
2005, Paul Baker, Public Discourse of Gay Men, →ISBN, page 160: