Receptiveness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being open and willing to accept new ideas, suggestions, or influences without resistance or prejudice
2. The state of being willing to consider and embrace new perspectives, information, or feelings, while remaining free of bias or refusal
3. The characteristic of being open-minded and accepting various thoughts, proposals, or emotions without opposition or discrimination

Etymology: Receptiveness is a plain English formation: the adjective "receptive" with the suffix "-ness", which turns a quality into a noun. The adjective itself came into English in the Middle English period, borrowed through Medieval Latin "receptivus" from the Latin "receptus", the past participle of "recipere", meaning "to take back" or "to receive". That verb is built from "re-", "back", and "capere", "to take", so the core idea is one of taking something in. The suffix "-ness" has been part of English since Old English, when "-nes" attached to adjectives to form abstract nouns, and it remains productive today. Its attachment to "receptive" follows that pattern, so the noun describes the state or quality of being receptive rather than a separate concept with its own history.

Synonyms: openness, acceptance

Antonyms: closed-mindedness, resistance