Dictionary

setness en · NOUN

Etymology

From set + -ness. Not apparently continuing Old English setnes and Middle English setnesse, which are morphologically identical. First attested in the 1640s.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The quality or state of being set; formality; obstinacy.
   • They who had shrugged their shoulders at her little peculiarities and setnesses […] acknowledged that now she was the exact person that was wanted. 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:
   • the starched setness of a sententious writer 1884, Robert Masters, Memoirs […] of Thomas Baker:

Forms