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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

thewlessness en · NOUN

Etymology

From thewless + -ness.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The state, quality, or condition of being thewless
    • The cloying diminution of signification and significance—indeed the thewlessness of all aspects of meaning, whether semantic, syntactic or pragmatic—that befalls the conscious mind as a result of its tendance upon a symbol [...] 1977, Richard League, Psycholinguistic Matrices: Investigation into Osgood and Morris:
    • A consequence of this which only worsens the intellectuals' thewlessness is that their antagonists are preaching a salvationary religion, and as Max Weber has said, such religions attract social strata in decline. 1970, The Alternative: An American Spectator - Volumes 4-5
    • That thewlessness is a pointed recollection of the last lines of "History": "Let us go down," Canaan's invaders tell themselves as they pause before descending to pillage and take possession, [...] 2006, Randolph Runyon, Ghostly Parallels: Robert Penn Warren and the Lyric Poetic Sequence: