Accommodatingness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The attribute of being ready to change or adapt for others’ convenience; the willingness to answer requests with kindness and flexibility; the essence of being helpful and enabling others by modifying one’s behavior or plans
2. The quality of being willing to adjust one's actions or plans to suit others' needs or desires
3. The characteristic of showing readiness to be flexible and facilitate others by adapting oneself

Etymology: "Accommodatingness" is a plain English compound: the adjective "accommodating" with the suffix "-ness" attached, which turns a quality into a noun. "Accommodating" itself comes from "accommodate," a verb borrowed from Latin "accommodare," meaning to fit one thing to another or to make things suitable. The adjective sense of being obliging and willing to help grew out of that idea of adjusting oneself to another person's needs. The suffix "-ness" is one of English's oldest and most productive noun-makers, descended from Old English and attached to adjectives since the earliest period of the language. Its job is simple: "kind" becomes "kindness," "bitter" becomes "bitterness," and so on. The coinage here follows that pattern exactly, so the word needs no special story beyond the combination of its two parts.