oarlessness en · NOUN
Etymology
From oarless + -ness.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) Absence of oars.
All that counts when Poe's gondolier loses his single oar is the idea of oarlessness.
1989, Richard P. Blackmur, James T. Jones, Outsider at the Heart of Things: Essays, page 227:Only dark birds know who let it rot over itself, mirror its oarlessness and the one thin seam that suddenly like a mouth opened to allow everything oceanic in.
2002, Douglas Smith, Helsinki Drift: Travel Poems, page 10: