enclosedness
English
Etymology
enclosed + -ness
Noun
enclosedness (uncountable)
- The state or characteristic of being confined within actual or figurative boundaries.
- 1915, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 13, in The Rainbow:
- Maggie was always single, always withheld. . . . It was during this winter that Ursula suffered and enjoyed most keenly Maggie's fundamental sadness of enclosedness.
- 1984, Christopher E. G. Benfey, Emily Dickinson and the Problem of Others, →ISBN, page 63:
- We must ask, first, whether our privacy — call it our distance or enclosedness or unknowability with respect to others — is elected or inevitable.
- 2006 Feb. 26, "Deeper Waters: Sarah Waters speaks to Anthony Quinn, The Age (Australia) (retrieved 27 Oct 2013):
- "I was thinking about the moment when that enclosedness, which can be protective, tips over into something menacing and unpleasant."
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Synonyms
- boundedness, finity, finitude, finiteness, limitedness; see also Thesaurus:finity