Dictionary

woodenness en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English wooden 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 woodenness From wooden + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The state of being wooden (often in a figurative sense).
   • What of him then? If no woman has yet detected, behind his woodenness, his clenched grimness, any flicker of the sacred fire […] 2002, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 8, in Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, London: Vintage, published 2003, pages 66–67:
   • […] Marigold’s smile faded into woodenness […] 1917, William John Locke, chapter 5, in The Red Planet:
   • There is hardly a house but is divided against itself, for our foe is the all but universal woodenness of both head and heart, the want of vitality in man, which is the effect of our vice; and hence are begotten fear, superstition, bigotry, persecution, and slavery of all kinds. 1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown:

Forms