northnessn.
/ˈnɔːθnəs/, U.S. /ˈnɔrθnəs/ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > North > [noun] > quality
northness1832
northernness1853
northernism1856
1832 M. Faraday in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 122 190 If the action of a north magnetic pole were to produce a southness in the nearest part of the copper plate, and a diffuse northness elsewhere.
1854 Orr's Circle Sci.: Chem. 263 Experimenters believed that either northness or southness in a magnet..might be capable each of an individual existence.
1855 Sci. Amer. 19 May 288/1 The ‘northness’ and ‘southness’ of a magnet, Professor Faraday..said, took place in curved lines outside..a magnet.
2. The state or condition of being (relatively) northerly in direction, position, or orientation. Cf. northernness n. 1.
ΚΠ
1867 I. I. Hayes Open Polar Sea xxxv. 345 Long lines of cackling geese..winging their way to some more remote point of northness.
1937 Philos. Rev. 46 397 In asserting ‘Edinburgh is north of London’ we are accepting some basic criterion of northness.
1993 Ecology 74 1569/1 Topography was summarized for each plot by calculating an index of northness.
3. Northern quality or character. Cf. northernness n. 2.
ΚΠ
1942 Sociometry 5 333 Northness has apparently made no such intrinsic appeal to the Colored as westness has made to the Whites.
2001 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 2 Sept. (Mag. section) c30 Some North Dakotans want to change ‘North Dakota’. Specifically, they don't like the word ‘North’, which connotes a certain northness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1832