Strangenesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

  1. The quality or state of being unusual or unfamiliar
  2. Oddities or peculiarities that stand out from the norm
  3. Instances or features that evoke a sense of oddness or deviation from what is expected

Etymology: The base of this noun is "strange," a word that entered English in the late Middle Ages, around the 14th century. It came from Old French "estrange," which itself derived from Latin "extraneus," meaning "external" or "from outside." This Latin root combines "extra," meaning "outside," with a suffix indicating origin or relation. Initially, the term conveyed the sense of something foreign or unfamiliar—literally coming from outside one’s usual environment. Over time, "strange" shifted from describing foreignness to emphasizing unfamiliarity in a broader sense. By the Early Modern English period, it had begun to signify anything unusual, odd, or unexpected, not just something foreign in a geographic or cultural sense. This semantic broadening laid the groundwork for various derived forms that explore different nuances of peculiarity. The noun form built on this adjective started appearing as "strangeness," capturing the quality or condition of being strange. By adding the suffix "-ness," a common way in English to create abstract nouns from adjectives, the language gained a word to express the state of being unusual or unfamiliar in an intangible, conceptual way. "Strangenesses" is the plural form of this noun, used to denote multiple instances or types of peculiar qualities or behaviors. While less commonly encountered than the singular, it serves to highlight a variety or collection of oddities or anomalies. This plural form follows a straightforward morphological pattern, combining the base noun with the regular English plural "-es" ending. Overall, the journey from a Latin term meaning "external" to a modern English abstract noun—and its plural—reflects how language evolves to accommodate nuanced human experiences of unfamiliarity and peculiarity.

Synonyms: oddities, peculiarities, eccentricities, quirks, anomalies

Antonyms: familiarities, normalities, regularities, commonplaces, usualnesses