possessionlessness

English

Etymology

From possessionless +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈzɛʃn̩.ləs.nəs/

Noun

possessionlessness (uncountable)

1. The state or condition of having no possessions.
   • 1992, Francesca Polletta, “Politicizing Childhood: The 1980 Zurich Burns Movement”, in Social Text, number 33, page 95:

     Their rebellion . . . translated their dispossession into the free possessionlessness of childhood.

   • 1996, Gordon Leff, “Review of Olivi's Peaceable Kingdom. A Reading of the Apocalypse Commentary by David Burr”, in The English Historical Review, volume 111, number 442, page 682:

     Olivi in his commentary on the Apocalypse sanctified Francisan poverty, in the extreme form of absolute penury as well as possessionlessness attributed by the Franciscan Spirituals to St. Francis.

   • 1996, Mavis Fenn, “Two Notions of Poverty in the Pāli Canon,”, in Journal of Buddhist Ethics, volume 3, page 113:

     More appropriate here is a definition of poverty as "possessionlessness," an understanding conveyed by the Pāli term akiñcana ("without anything," "lacking possessions").

Related terms

• possessionless

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.