Oddenesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for the quality of being peculiar, strange or out of the ordinary in appearance or behaviour
2. Old-fashioned word for the condition of being unusual, eccentric or not matching what is expected
3. A dated noun describing the strangeness of a thing, or its lack of pairing or evenness with others

Etymology: "Oddenesse" is an Early Modern English noun meaning the quality of being odd, formed from the adjective "odd" with the suffix "-ness", which English has used since Old English to turn adjectives into nouns of state or quality. The adjective "odd" itself is comparatively late: it entered English in the 1300s from Old Norse "oddi", meaning a triangle's point or a leftover, which gave rise to the sense of an unpaired or extra number. From there the notion of "not matching, out of the ordinary" developed. The "-ness" suffix is what makes this an ordinary formation rather than a rare coinage, and "oddenesse" appears in English writing of the 1500s and 1600s before the spelling settled into the modern "oddness". Its shape is a plain compound of two English parts, so there is little more to trace beyond the adjective's Norse origin.