Surrealness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A characteristic denoting an unusual blend of dream-like elements and reality that creates an unsettling and bizarre sense of existence
2. An attribute of experiences or artistic expressions that evoke the strange and unexpected, challenging perceptions of what is real and rational
3. The quality of having an unreal, fantastical, or strange atmosphere similar to dreams

Etymology: Surrealness is a plain English formation: the adjective "surreal" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. The adjective itself comes from the French "surréalisme" ("surrealism"), which is built from "sur-", meaning "above" or "beyond", and "réalisme", meaning "realism". The sense is literally "beyond the real," and the Latin "super" lies behind the French prefix. The French term entered English as "surrealism," the name of an artistic movement, and "surreal" was formed from it as a back-formation of the adjective kind. From there, "-ness" was attached to yield "surrealness," a noun for the quality of being surreal. The suffix has a long history in English, descending from Old English "-nes" and a Germanic ancestor, and it is the standard way to make a quality-noun from an adjective.

Synonyms: unreality, dreaminess

Antonyms: realism