Yellownesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state or quality of being yellow in color or appearance
2. A particular application of yellow in a description or aesthetic
3. A characteristic of certain plants or materials where yellow is predominant

Etymology: This is the plural of "yellowness", so the core story belongs to that base word. "Yellowness" is a plain compound: the adjective "yellow", from Old English "geolu" and related Germanic forms that trace back to an Indo-European root for the colour, plus the suffix "-ness", which turns an adjective into a noun of quality, as in "kindness" or "darkness". The English form arrived in Middle English as "yelownesse", a straightforward joining of the two parts. The plural is the less common step. Since "yellowness" names an abstract quality, it usually sits in the singular, as a single property shared by everything yellow. Writers pluralise it when they want to pick out separate instances of that quality, the distinct tints and shades a painter, critic or describer might single out in a scene. In that sense the plural treats each shade as its own small "yellowness", counted rather than merely felt.

Synonyms: yellow color, sallowness

Antonyms: blueness, greenness