Outdatedness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of something no longer being current or in use due to age or obsolescence
2. A situation where an item or idea has fallen out of modern relevance or acceptance
3. The quality describing something as old-fashioned and no longer suitable for present needs

Etymology: "Outdatedness" is a simple formation: the adjective "outdated," meaning out of date or no longer in fashion, combined with the suffix "-ness," which turns an adjective into a noun naming a state or quality. "Outdated" itself is built from "out" and "dated," the latter from "date" in its sense of a point in time, so the word describes the condition of having fallen behind a particular moment. The suffix "-ness" is an old native English element, descended from Old English "-nes," and it has been attached freely to adjectives for centuries, so new coinages like this one appear wherever a speaker needs a noun for a quality that an adjective already describes. Words of this kind are often used when a writer wants to discuss the general condition of being obsolete rather than a single obsolete thing.

Synonyms: obsolescence, antiquity

Antonyms: modernity, newness