nouninessn.
/ˈnaʊnɪnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈnaʊninᵻs/ The (excessive) use of nouns or nominal constructions. Also (Linguistics): the state or condition of being noun-like.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > noun > [noun] > status as
nounship1827
nounness1929
nouniness1969
1969 Science 17 Oct. 365 The ‘Conference of Biological Editors’ has become ‘the Council of Biology Editors’. Such nouniness—which infects all of our writing these days—may seem insignificant until you see how editors ‘improve’ a text.
1973 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 211 170 Ross has uncovered fuzziness in just about every grammatical phenomenon he has investigated–fuzzy grammatical categories, degrees of adjectiveness, degrees of nouniness.
1978 Language 54 356 There are still further distinctions to be made among English nominal constructions with regard to their degree of ‘nouniness’.
1990 Success (Nexis) Aug. 57 Avoid nouniness - which Good defines as the use of wimpy, long-winded nouns in place of forceful verbs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1969