pastnessn.
/ˈpɑːs(t)nəs/, /ˈpas(t)nəs/, U.S. /ˈpæs(t)nəs/ The state or condition of being past; the quality or fact of being related to the past.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > [noun] > state or condition of being past
preteriteness1665
pastness1829
1829 J. Mill Anal. Human Mind II. xiv. 103 To our conclusion, that Time is the equivalent of Pastness, Presentness, and Futureness, combined, it may be objected, that the word Time is applicable to all the three cases.
1873 W. D. Whitney Oriental & Ling. Stud. 260 He will thus at a blow..reduce to a state of irretrievable pastness, a host of..philosophical systems.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. xv. 605 How do these things get their pastness? What is the original of our experience of pastness, from whence we get the meaning of the term?
1941 F. Matthiessen Amer. Renaissance xiv. iv. 654 He did not so often think of the presentness of the past as of the pastness of the present, of its illimitable shadowy extensions backward to the roots of history.
1987 M. Warnock Memory ii. 21 To be a memory..an image must be accompanied by..a feeling of pastness.
2002 New Republic (Nexis) 16 Dec. 26 His glances at Catherine II and Peter the Great..are like warrants of pastness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1829