officiousness

plural officiousnesses

1. countableuncountableThe quality of being officious.

   emulatory officiousness

   2 more examples

   Mrs Palmer, and her furbelowed daughters-in-law, who will probably carry enough of the scarlet fever about them, to remind you unpleasantly of the officiousness which preserved the lives of three daughters, when two might have been parted with advantageously enough.

   1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 224–225

   Meantime the frog had set off to tell God that when men died they would prefer not to come back to life again. Nobody had asked him to give that message; it was a piece of pure officiousness and impertinence on his part.

   1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 62

   Synonyms: beadledom