Reediness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of having a thin, high, piercing tone of voice or instrument ; the condition of being slight, frail or lacking body in build or texture
2. A thin, wiry, piercing quality in sound ; a slight, spindly or feeble quality in a person's build or in something's substance
3. Thin and high-pitched quality of a sound, like a reed instrument ; a scrawny or insubstantial quality in physique or material

Etymology: Reediness is a plain formation: the adjective "reedy" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. The adjective "reedy" describes something that sounds thin and high-pitched, like a note played on a reed instrument, or a voice that lacks body. That sense of the reed as a source of sound is what the word carries, since reeds were long used to make pipes and wind instruments. The suffix "-ness" has a long history in English. It descends from Old English "-nes", which was attached to adjectives to form abstract nouns, and it became a productive way of making such nouns in Middle and modern English. Speakers could add it to nearly any adjective, so "reedy" plus "-ness" produces a noun naming the thin, piercing quality itself.