absentnessn.
/ˈabs(ə)ntnəs/, U.S. /ˈæbsən(t)nəs/ rare.
The quality or state of being absent in mind; distractedness, absent-mindedness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > abstraction, absent-mindedness > [noun]
amusement1663
reverie1690
abstractedness1705
absence1709
preoccupation1788
absentness1790
abstraction1791
absent-mindedness1845
misadvertence1870
not-thereness1902
la-la land1979
1790 J. Armstrong Confid. Lett. Albert xxi. 110 His absentness of mind has been productive of the most cruel mortification.
1858 H. Miller My Schools & Schoolmasters (new ed.) 386 He has..more than the average absentness of the great scholar about him.
1888 G. Gissing Life's Morning II. xii. 166 His wife wore the wonted Sabbath absentness.
1926 W. de la Mare Connoisseur 187 A sort of absentness, a slight frown, had settled on his face.
1976 Times 27 Mar. 9/7 No 6 came shyly into the light with hesitant gestures and a certain air of attenuated ‘absentness’.
2000 Financial Times (Nexis) 29 Jan. 4 He is plausibly consistent in his sad absentness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1790