Nesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The plural form of a suffix indicating a state, condition, or quality of being; it functions to convert adjectives or participles into nouns to express abstract concepts
2. A linguistic element used to denote multiple instances of a particular abstract trait or condition; commonly appended to descriptive words to form nouns that describe a characteristic
3. Refers to various states or degrees of attributes as represented by a suffix that turns descriptive terms into nouns expressing the essence or nature of something

Etymology: "Nesses" is the plural of "-ness," the suffix that turns adjectives into nouns for qualities, as in "kindness" or "darkness." Because the suffix is usually used in the singular, its plural appears mainly when someone speaks of several distinct qualities at once, as in "the nesses that define a good leader." The suffix itself has a surprisingly physical origin. It descends from Old English "næs," meaning a headland or promontory, a sense that survives in place names such as "Dungeness" and "Orford Ness" along the English coast. Middle English speakers used "-nesse" in place names, and the word's cousins in Old Norse, Swedish and Danish still mean the same kind of projecting land. How a word for a jutting piece of coast became a grammatical ending for abstract qualities is a matter of the shift from naming a place to naming a condition. The source word is related to "nose," reflecting the same idea of something projecting outward.

Synonyms: states, conditions