unbusinesslikeness

English

Etymology

From unbusinesslike +‎ -ness.

Noun

unbusinesslikeness (uncountable)

1. The quality or condition of being unbusinesslike.

   Antonym: businesslikeness

   • 1874 May 14, Florence Nightingale, “Letter to Henry Bonham Carter”, in Lynn McDonald, editor, Florence Nightingale: Extending Nursing, Waterloo, O.N.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 653:

     Miss Hill is killing herself with conscientiousness and, as you so truly said, with unbusinesslikeness, and to no purpose for anybody.

   • 1890, Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., page 184:

     They complain, it is true, not so much of actual wilful dishonesty—though of that, too, they affirm there is plenty—as of pettiness, constant shillyshallying, unbusinesslikeness almost passing belief.

   • 1895, George Saintsbury, “Three Mid-Century Novelists”, in Corrected Impressions: Essays on Victorian Writers, 2nd edition, London: William Heinemann, pages 176–177:

     You will no more avoid failure by systematic unbusinesslikeness, than you will secure success by strict attention to business.

   • 1968, G[ershon] Legman, Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor, New York, N.Y.: Bell Publishing Company, published 1975, page 232:

     The unbusinesslikeness of the profession of prostitution is considered very amusing by men. At a fire in the whorehouse, the Madam screams: "Where's that wench with the towels? If she's gone, my accounting system is shot to hell!"

   • 1999 June, Dennis Gilbride, Robert Stensrud, “Demand-Side Job Development and System Change”, in Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, volume 42, number 4, Alexandria, V.A.: American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 338:

     When elected officials saw their loss reduction decisions from within the frame of "unbusinesslikeness," they quickly approved spending money on uniform business cards.