thewlessness

thewlessness

English

Etymology

From thewless +‎ -ness.

Noun

thewlessness (uncountable)

1. The state, quality, or condition of being thewless
   • 1970, The Alternative: An American Spectator - Volumes 4-5:

     A consequence of this which only worsens the intellectuals' thewlessness is that their antagonists are preaching a salvationary religion, and as Max Weber has said, such religions attract social strata in decline.

   • 1977, Richard League, Psycholinguistic Matrices: Investigation into Osgood and Morris:

     The cloying diminution of signification and significance—indeed the thewlessness of all aspects of meaning, whether semantic, syntactic or pragmatic—that befalls the conscious mind as a result of its tendance upon a symbol [...]

   • 2006, Randolph Runyon, Ghostly Parallels: Robert Penn Warren and the Lyric Poetic Sequence:

     That thewlessness is a pointed recollection of the last lines of "History": "Let us go down," Canaan's invaders tell themselves as they pause before descending to pillage and take possession, [...]