Etymology

openness

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Today it means: Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see open, -ness. Full definition →

Middle English *opennesse ← Old English openness
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromopenness“openness, publicity”
  2. Middle English · inherited from*opennesse
  3. English todayopenness

From Middle English *opennesse, from Old English openness (“openness, publicity”), equivalent to open + -ness. Cognate with Old High German offannussi (“disclosure, revelation, openness”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.