standoffishness
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
standoffish + -ness
Noun[edit]
standoffishness (uncountable)
- The state, quality, or condition of being standoffish or aloof and unsociable; aloofness.
- 2004, Kate Fox, “Rules of Sex”, in Watching the English, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 336:
- Many of the seemingly bizarre courtship practices of English males—the cautiousness, reserve and apparent stand-offishness that foreign females complain about—are characteristic features of ‘negative politeness’.