differentness

differentness

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is-
Proto-Italic *dis-
Latin dis-
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-
Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti
Proto-Italic *ferō
Latin ferō
Latin differō
Latin differēnsder.
Old French differentbor.
Middle English different
English different
Proto-Germanic *-in-
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti
Proto-Germanic *-ōną
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 differentness

    From different + -ness.

    Noun

    differentness (countable and uncountable, plural differentnesses)

    1. (uncountable) The state or quality of being different.
      • 1985 August 24, Gordon Gottlieb, “CIA-Baiting a Liberal Closet Queen”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 7, page 14:
        Only recently […] have biographies incorporated an analysis of an individual's sexuality, not in some vulgar Freudian sense, but as helping to explain someone's internal sense of differentness or specialness — or, as I suspect in Lowenstein's case, aloneness — that becomes a springboard for a special life.
    2. (countable) The result or product of being different.
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