Edness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of possessing a characteristic denoted by the suffix "ed"; a condition of having been affected or changed in a particular way; a manner or degree to which something exhibits an attribute
2. A state characterized by the presence of a specified trait indicated by the "-ed" ending; the degree to which an object or person demonstrates a certain quality; the condition resulting from having assumed an attribute
3. The attribute or condition that results from something being described by the "-ed" suffix; the extent or nature of a property or feature as expressed by this form; the overall state of being marked by a specific characteristic

Etymology: "Edness" is a noun formed by adding the suffix "-ness" to the adjective "ed," but that is a clue to its nature rather than a story. The "-ed" ending itself is the English past-tense and participle suffix, which is descended from an Old English form that was itself used to build past tenses on weak verbs such as "lufode" (loved). Its ancestry is a Germanic dental suffix, and the scholarly consensus on that origin is debated, so it is best left unexplained here. Because "ed" is a grammatical ending rather than a free word, "-ness" can attach to it only in a playful or metalinguistic sense, meaning "the quality of being a past-tense ending." Words built this way, such as "theyness" or "thatness," are coined on demand by writers and linguists discussing grammar, and "edness" appears in that kind of usage rather than in the core vocabulary. It has no dictionary history of its own, and no earlier sense it has drifted from.

Synonyms: state, condition, quality, characteristic, attribute