nextnessn.
/ˈnɛkstnəs/, U.S. /ˈnɛks(t)nəs/ Chiefly Philosophy.
The fact or condition of being next; proximity, contiguity, adjacency.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > distance > nearness > [noun] > immediate proximity
nextnessc1454
immediateness1633
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > preceding or following in order > [noun] > the placing of one thing after another > fact of immediate succession
nextnessc1454
c1454 R. Pecock Folewer to Donet 195 (MED) Oxen and horsis..ben þe next to whom we dressen oure deedis as in natural dressyng and in natural nextnesse or immediacioun.
1875 J. B. McClellan New Test. 424 [St Luke] promises to write ‘according to nextness’ in order, or consecutively.
1875 W. K. Clifford Lect. (1879) I. 244 These elements of feeling have relations of nextness or contiguity in space.
1907 W. James Pragmatism iv. 57 Union that merely goes from next to next, and means in many cases outer nextness only, and not a more internal bond.
1968 Guardian 11 Apr. 7/7 Tune is..a novel about nextness, a novelistic prediction of the casualties we invent to relate birth, love, and death.
1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 28 Aug. i. 23 It's the nature of television to expand the Nowness of time until it blots out the Thenness and the Nextness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.c1454