inconspicuosity

English

Etymology

From inconspicuous +‎ -osity.

Noun

inconspicuosity (uncountable)

1. The quality of being inconspicuous.

   Synonyms: inconspicuity, inconspicuousness

   • c. 1876, “On Certain Delusions of the North Britons. Edited from an MS. of the 19th Century, with notes by G. H. C.”, in Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume XLVIII, London: Richard Bentley & Son, […], published October 1876, page 181:

     But after a time they found them inconvenient for their daily work and pastimes, which consisted principally of the laying of ambushes for the cutting of each other’s throats, or worse, and the hunting of the red-deer; both which things requiring secrecy and inconspicuosity, these bright and gaudy colours bewrayed them to their enemies and their game.

   • 1890 April, “Reviews”, in The Shakespeare Society of New York, Shakespeariana: A Critical and Contemporary Review of Shakespearian Literature, volume VII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Leonard Scott Publication Co., review 54, pages 124–125:

     We see that graceful figure—always perfect, whether in the slashed doublet of Shakespeare, the laces of the Cavalier era, the scarlet and gold uniform of a soldier, or the stern inconspicuosity of the habit of the contemporary gentleman—as we read these pages of simple narration.

   • 1893 February 18, “Individualities”, in Saturday Night, volume 6, number 13 (whole 273), Toronto, Ont.: The Sheppard Publishing Co., […], page 3, column 2:

     The news of the death of Fanny Kemble came as a great surprise to a host of persons, so many had supposed her long since dead. It is somewhat remarkable that a woman who in her time filled so large a place in the public eye should fall into such inconspicuosity that her very existence is lost sight of.

   • 1895 January 27, “Fortunes in Furniture: How Hop Meadow Village Discovered Its Hidden Wealth. Deacon Wallace’s Wife’s Bargain; Aaron Damon Tempted Her to Trade off Her Old China and She Fell—But the Deacon Squares Accounts.”, in The New-York Times, volume XLIV, number 13,551, New York, N.Y., page 12, column 5:

     The last village entered and devastated by the old-furniture hunter was Hop Meadow Village. This was partly on account of its inaccessibility—though that would have been a spur to some hunters; and partly to the very primitive manner of life of the surrounding region, which yielded nothing worth gathering for the adornment of city homes; and partly to its inconspicuosity—to apply a long word to a small matter—for it is marked on no map of the State, is twenty-seven miles from a railroad, and, in fact, gets mail but thrice a week, when Aaron Damon, the Tax Collector, drives his buckboard ten miles over the hills to Bountiful, which has a daily stage from Charter Oak, on the railway.

   • 1939, Ernest Vincent Wright, chapter XII, in Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter “E”, Los Angeles, Calif.: Wetzel Publishing Co., Inc., page 102:

     And Man thinks that his part in all this unthinkably vast Cosmos is important!! Why, you poor shrimp! if this old World wants to twitch just a bit and knock down a city or two, or split up a group of mountains, Man, with all his brain capacity, can only dash wildly about, dodging falling bricks. No. You wouldn’t show up from that balloon as plainly as an ant, in crawling around our Capitol building at Washington. But why all this talk about our own inconspicuosity? It is simply brought up to accompany Nancy’s thoughts as that train shot across country; for Nancy, until now, had not known anything approaching such a trip.

   • 1950, Bernard Phillips, “[Notes on the Prison Community] After Prisonization”, in Holley Cantine, Dachine Rainer, editors, Prison Etiquette: The Convict’s Compendium of Useful Information, Bearsville, N.Y.: Retort Press, section 2 (The Prison Community), page 104:

     The convict is always in a hurry—one created by himself—and quite oblivious of the fact that he is rushing in circles. Environmental sameness invests every action with special significance, brevity and uncertainty of friendly contacts makes for infinite planning and replanning of what to do and say in any particular instant, how to bring that instant about, how to preserve inconspicuosity during it…

   • 1989, Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards! (Discworld; 8), London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, page 85:

     They were taking inconspicuosity seriously. That ruled out most of the taverns on the Morpork side of the river, where they were very well known.

Related terms

• conspicuosity