standoffishness
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From 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’.