ploverness

English edit

ploverness (uncountable)

(nonce word) The essence of what it means to be a plover; the qualities that make a plover what it is.
- 2007, Douglas Carlson, Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography, University of Texas Press, page 200:
  He has no problem with Graves painting “what he feels about what he sees,” but for Peterson, it just doesn't work with birds: “The critic will ask 'isn't it just the very essence of ploverness?' My answer is 'hardly; I know too damn much about plovers.'"
- 2017, Rosamond Richardson, Waiting for the Albino Dunnock: How birds can change your life:
  The ploverness of this bird. One preened, another fed, most were just static, daydreaming.