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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

snowflakeness en · NOUN

Etymology

From snowflake + -ness.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The essence or qualities of a snowflake.
    • Another position takes refuge in idiosyncacy—"every child is a unique individual!" True enough. So is very^([sic]) snowflake, yet we possess a theory of snowflakeness. 1982, R. N. Malatesha, P. G. Aaron, Reading Disorders: Varieties and Treatments, page 153:
    • She is convinced that one particular snowflake that she names Harry—and why not Harry?—is unique, and yet he belongs to a larger family of snowflakes. Harry and his “relatives” share many characteristics of "snowflakeness,” yet he is different from all the rest—a point that even her older brother Dennis does not dispute. 1994, Steven R. Rosman, Spiritual Parenting: A Sourcebook for Parents and Teachers, unnumbered page:
    • There's an aspect to each maple leaf and snowflake that remains from leaf to leaf and from snowflake to snowflake. It retains each leaf's "maple-leafness" and each snowflake's "snowflakeness." 1995, Steve Hagen, Why the World Doesn't Seem to Make Sense: An Inquiry Into Science, Philosophy, and Perception, page 166:
  2. (derogatory, often, slang, uncountable) The state or quality of believing oneself to be special or exceptional.
    • We want to feel ownership over artists before anyone else even knows who they are, and we have a soft spot for atypical music with lyrics that relate to our life experiences (see: Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Björk). I, for one, will admit it: I am very concerned with my unique snowflake-ness. 2011, Courtney E. Smith, Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time, page 72:
    • […] He'd call this humane, a 'low impact' way of 'bringing me around' to sanity, which, in his world, is the ability to bullshit yourself into believing you deserve to have more of everything that everyone else has less of, because of your special snowflakeness." 2017, Cory Doctorow, Walkaway, page 178:
    • To help you discover your own beauty as a flower. Your own identity as a snowflake - your snowflakeness. You are the only 'you' you will ever know . 1996, Tim Smith, The Relaxed Parent: Helping Your Kids Do More As You Do Less, page 73: