Prickliness

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɪklɪnəs/

Definitions

1. The quality of being sharp or thorny can refer both to physical traits and an emotional disposition that exhibits hostility or irritability
2. This term describes both the physical presence of pointed ends or sharp projections and a metaphorical sense indicating a tendency to react with annoyance or aggression
3. It denotes the state of having sharp points or barbs as well as a character that is often easily offended or inclined to be unapproachable

Etymology: Prickliness is a plain English compound: the adjective "prickly" with the suffix "-ness," which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality. The base word "prickly" is itself built from "prickle," a sharp point, plus the adjective-forming "-y." The root "prickle" traces back through Old English and Germanic forms to a very ancient ancestor, but the story that matters here is how the suffixes were attached in English over time. The "-ness" ending is one of the oldest productive suffixes in the language. It descends from an Old English "-nes(s)," which was used to build abstract nouns from adjectives, so English speakers could create a noun naming a quality from almost any adjective they needed. That is why "prickliness" could be formed freely from "prickly" without any special coinage. The suffix chain here runs back through Proto-Germanic forms to very early Indo-European roots, but these are only the distant ancestry of the ending. Because "-ness" is so productive, "prickliness" is a transparent word. Its first sense names the physical quality of having sharp projections, and the figurative sense of a touchy or irritable temperament grew naturally from the same image of something that stings when touched.

Synonyms: irritability, sharpness, spikiness, tactlessness

Antonyms: smoothness, gentleness, politeness