English

Noun

awayness ‎(uncountable)

1. The state or condition of being away; distance; remoteness; absence; absenteeism.
   • 1925, Aldous Huxley, Those barren leaves:

     It was the awayness of it that first attracted me to the place. The vast awayness from what I had called home up till the time I first stayed there — that was what made me decide to settle for good at Miss Carruthers's.

   • 1942, Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead, Balinese character, a photographic analysis:

     These periods of awayness are not followed by manifestations of fatigue, and are usually terminated by a sudden [...]

   • 1960, Jane Belo, Trance in Bali:

     They describe the trances of the balian or seer of the village they studied most exhaustively as beginning with such "awayness," then passing into a period when "the seer exhibits emotions never otherwise expressed except on the stage [...]

   • 1991, Wilfred G. Cartey, Whispers from the Caribbean:

     Clearly then, two separate spaces, the countries of origin — the Caribbean — and the countries to which they have migrated — England, Canada, the United States — become the figural polarities linking together the condition of awayness, [...]

   • 2006, Jill B. R. Cherneff, Eve Hochwald, Visionary observers: anthropological inquiry and education:

     Potentially, “awayness” is a messy category for analyzing a people's behavior.

Derived terms

• far-awayness