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awayness

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From away +‎ -ness.

Noun

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awayness (uncountable)

  1. The state or condition of being away; distance; remoteness; absence; absenteeism.
    • 1925, Aldous Huxley, Those barren leaves:
      It was the awayness of it that first attracted me to the place. The vast awayness from what I had called home up till the time I first stayed there — that was what made me decide to settle for good at Miss Carruthers's.
    • 1942, Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead, Balinese character, a photographic analysis:
      These periods of awayness are not followed by manifestations of fatigue, and are usually terminated by a sudden [...]
    • 1960, Jane Belo, Trance in Bali:
      They describe the trances of the balian or seer of the village they studied most exhaustively as beginning with such "awayness," then passing into a period when "the seer exhibits emotions never otherwise expressed except on the stage [...]
    • 1991, Wilfred G. Cartey, Whispers from the Caribbean:
      Clearly then, two separate spaces, the countries of origin — the Caribbean — and the countries to which they have migrated — England, Canada, the United States — become the figural polarities linking together the condition of awayness, [...]
    • 2006, Jill B. R. Cherneff, Eve Hochwald, Visionary observers: anthropological inquiry and education:
      Potentially, “awayness” is a messy category for analyzing a people's behavior.
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