silentnessn.
/ˈsʌɪləntnəs/, /ˈsʌɪln̩tnəs/, U.S. /ˈsaɪlən(t)nəs/ 1. Maintenance of silence; avoidance of or a tendency to refrain from speech or utterance; inability to speak or make a sound.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > taciturnity or reticence > [noun]
stillnessc1050
silencea1225
seld-speech?c1225
taciturnityc1450
retreata1533
mum1555
silentness1573
reticence1603
reticencya1617
reservation1619
parciloquy1656
reserve1659
costiveness1792
incommunicativeness1815
mutism1824
incommunicableness1835
ineloquence1843
incommunicability1855
unspeaking1860
mumchanceness1910
mumchanciness1920
1573 I. Whitney Sweet Nosgay sig. D.viij Sith I se their silentnesse, I cease the same to write.
1587 H. Parry tr. Z. Ursinus Summe of Christian Relig. iii. 997 Silentnesse without affability becommeth Morositie or peeuishnesse.
1657 N. Culpeper & W. Rowland tr. J. Johnstone Idea Pract. Physick ii. 13/1 Sadness, silentness, troublesome dreams, leanness of the Body.
1836 E. B. Barrett Poet's Vow in New Monthly Mag. Oct. 217 I charge thee by the living's prayer—The corpse's silentness.
2012 @nell_jacklyn 3 July in twitter.com (accessed 29 July 2019) His silentness is really comforting to me. Like he doesn't even have to say anything cause he already knows.
2. The condition of being silent or still; absence of sound or noise; silence, stillness, noiselessness. Also: a state of silence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > inaudibility > [noun] > silence
stillnessc1050
silence?c1225
clum1340
stillhead1340
quiet?c1450
whust1558
husht1566
muteness1590
silency1595
still1608
hushtness1609
whistness1609
silentness1664
noiselessness1834
soundlessness1834
non-speech1863
shush1954
deafening silence1968
ciunas1986
1664 Court & Kitchin Joan Cromwel 26 Several repaires were likewise made in her own appartiments..; Her Highnesseship, not being yet accustomed to that roomy and August Dwelling, and perhaps afraid of the vastnesse and silentnesse thereof.
1798 S. T. Coleridge Anc. Marinere vi, in W. Wordsworth & S. T. Coleridge Lyrical Ballads 41 The moonlight steep'd in silentness The steady weathercock.
1813 P. B. Shelley Queen Mab viii. 102 Where the shrill chirp of the green lizard's love Broke on the sultry silentness alone.
1865 R. W. Buchanan in Cornhill Mag. Mar. 360 In the keen cold air There was a hush, a sleepless silentness.
2006 Lit. Criterion (Mysore, India) 41 53 The silentness of the surrounding world made him miserable.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1573