setness
The quality or state of being set; formality; obstinacy.
Noun
- The quality or state of being set; formality; obstinacy.
- the starched setness of a sententious writer - 1884, Robert Masters, Memoirs […] of Thomas Baker:
- They who had shrugged their shoulders at her little peculiarities and setnesses […] acknowledged that now she was the exact person that was wanted. - 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or,...
Origin
From set + -ness. Not apparently continuing Old English setnes and Middle English setnesse, which are morphologically identical. First attested in the 1640s.