enclosedness

English

Etymology

enclosed +‎ -ness

Noun

enclosedness (uncountable)

1. The state or characteristic of being confined within actual or figurative boundaries.
   • 1915, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 13, in The Rainbow:

     Maggie was always single, always withheld. . . . It was during this winter that Ursula suffered and enjoyed most keenly Maggie's fundamental sadness of enclosedness.

   • 1984, Christopher E. G. Benfey, Emily Dickinson and the Problem of Others, →ISBN, page 63:

     We must ask, first, whether our privacy — call it our distance or enclosedness or unknowability with respect to others — is elected or inevitable.

   • 2006 Feb. 26, "Deeper Waters: Sarah Waters speaks to Anthony Quinn, The Age (Australia) (retrieved 27 Oct 2013):

     "I was thinking about the moment when that enclosedness, which can be protective, tips over into something menacing and unpleasant."

Synonyms

• boundedness, finity, finitude, finiteness, limitedness; see also Thesaurus:finity