Controversialness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of provoking dispute and disagreement among individuals
2. The quality of being a source of public debate and differing opinions
3. The characteristic of generating strong disagreements or debates across different groups

Etymology: "Controversialness" is a plain compound: the adjective "controversial" with the suffix "-ness," which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality. The suffix itself is old. It descends from Old English "-nes," and it has been one of English's most productive ways of making abstract nouns, attaching to native words like "kindness" and "happiness" as readily as to borrowed ones. The adjective "controversial" is the more interesting half. It comes from "controversy," which English took from Latin "controversia," meaning a dispute or a debate, built from "contra" ("against") and "versia," from "vertere," "to turn." The idea is of positions turned against each other. "Controversial" followed as an adjective for matters that invite dispute, and "controversialness" names the quality of being such a matter.

Synonyms: controversy, debate, dispute

Antonyms: consensus, agreement