Dickiness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The tendency to malfunction or behave unpredictably ; meanness or unkindness in character or behavior
2. A propensity for things to go wrong or fail ; nastiness or cruelty in how someone treats others
3. The state of being unreliable or prone to problems ; the quality of being ungenerous or harsh in dealings with people

Etymology: "Dickiness" is the quality of being dicky, formed by adding the suffix "-ness," which turns an adjective into a noun of state, as in "readiness" or "sadness." The adjective "dicky," chiefly British and informal, means shaky, unreliable, or unsound, as in a "dicky heart" or a "dicky engine." It is often used of health and machinery. The adjective's own origin is uncertain. It is generally treated as a separate, later development rather than a clear descendant of any older English word, and dictionaries do not agree on a source. Because "dicky" is also used for unrelated things, such as a shirt front and a small seat at the back of a car, and because the same spelling appears in several unconnected senses, the origin of the adjective cannot be traced with confidence. The noun "dickiness" simply follows the regular pattern of English formation from it.