† pokerishnessn.1
U.S. colloquial. Obsolete. rare.
The quality of eeriness or unearthliness; the quality of being frightening, scariness.
ΚΠ
1845 N. P. Willis N.Y. Evening Mirror 29 Jan. 4/1 [The Raven is] unsurpassed in English Poetry for subtle conception, masterly..versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift and ‘pokerishness’.
1887 Marion (Ohio) Daily Star 26 Apr. 2/3 If some of you Detroiters who live on the dead level..could but faintly imagine the real pokerishness of that climb.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
† pokerishnessn.2
Obsolete. rare.
The quality of being stiff and unyielding.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > discourtesy > [noun] > lack of affability
strangenessc1386
unhomelinessc1440
fremdnessa1500
coldness1557
coolnessa1586
self-guarda1586
diskindness1596
formality1599
reservedness1606
inaffability1611
restrainta1616
unconess1637
chillness1639
froideur1645
distance1660
starchedness1670
buckram1682
starchness?1693
starch1694
reserve1711
stiffness1717
unapproachableness1727
retirement1803
angularity1824
standoffishness1826
distancy1836
chill1837
starchiness1844
unapproachability1846
hedgehogginess1858
standoff1865
offishness1867
aloofness1878
pokerishness1880
untouchableness1909
untouchability1919
stuffiness1926
1848 N. Hawthorne in S. Longfellow Life H. W. Longfellow (1891) II. i. 36 A man of thought and originality, with a certain iron-pokerishness, an uncompromising stiffness in his mental character.]
1880 Argosy 29 230 ‘I regret to have lost it,’ I said, stiff to pokerishness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
<
n.11845n.21880