babyishnessn.
/ˈbeɪbɪᵻʃnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈbeɪbiɪʃnᵻs/ The fact or quality of being babyish; excessive childishness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > childish folly, childishness > [noun]
chilcea1200
fauntelte1377
bairnheid?a1513
childishness1539
babishness1557
puerility1576
childnessa1616
puerileness1727
babyhood1748
babyishness1836
immaturity1895
1836 Schoolmaster (Soc. Diffusion Useful Knowl.) I. 44 These are they who laugh at quietness of nature as simpleness and lack of it, and at bashful and blushing modesty as babyishness and ill-breeding.
1899 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 10 548 The aggravation may be pushed still further with accusations of babyishness in quest of a deeper lying and later reaction.
1921 Spectator 30 Apr. 543/2 The dialogue and story, now innocent to babyishness, now full of insight and high poetry.
1943 D. Welch Jrnl. 3 July (1952) 80 ‘I can't,’ Ginger said with assumed babyishness, quavering.
2003 S. Brett Murder in Museum i. 7 Graham Chadleigh-Bewes had one of those faces whose babyishness is only accentuated by the advance of wrinkles and the retreat of hair.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1836