Presentness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The attribute of being acutely aware of the current moment The condition of existing in a particular time with full consciousness A state of attentiveness to the immediate experiences happening now
2. The quality of fully experiencing and acknowledging the here and now with focused attention
3. The state of mind characterized by total engagement and mindfulness of the ongoing present time

Etymology: "Presentness" is a plain formation: the adjective "present" with the suffix "-ness," which English has attached to adjectives since Old English to turn a quality into a noun. The adjective itself came into English from Old French "present," which had inherited it from Latin "praesens," literally "being before (someone)" or "at hand," built from "prae" ("before") and the verb "esse" ("to be"). So the core idea was something physically standing in front of you, and only later did it come to mean the current moment in time. The suffix does the work here. "-ness" joined to "present" gives the abstract state of being present, whether in a room or in attention. The term describing mindful engagement with the current moment is a modern coinage built on this pattern, not an ancient word, and its meaning rests on the older sense of "present" as "here and now."

Synonyms: immediacy, presence, actuality, existence, being

Antonyms: absence, nonexistence, remoteness, futurity, displacement