Word.ws English Dictionary

swainishness

swainishness noun: the quality of being swainish.

Noun

swainishness (uncountable)

  1. The quality of being swainish.
    • But there are people who cannot be cultivated,—people on whom speech makes no impression,—swainish, morose people, who must be kept down and quieted as you would those who are a little tipsy; others, who are not only swainish, but are prompt to take oath that swainishness is the only culture; and...1876, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Social Aims”, in Letters and Social Aims, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, pages 86–87

Origin of swainishness

From swainish + -ness.

Questions about swainishness

What does swainishness mean?
Swainishness means the quality of being swainish.
What part of speech is swainishness?
Swainishness is a noun.

Words near swainishness in the dictionary

  1. Swainby
  2. swaine
  3. swaines
  4. swaining
  5. swainish
  6. swainishness
  7. swainling
  8. swainlings
  9. swainmote
  10. swainmotes
  11. swains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swainishness (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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