businessness

English

Etymology

From business +‎ -ness.

Noun

businessness (uncountable)

1. (nonstandard) The quality of being businesslike or characteristic of a business.
   • 1971, Daniel Cohen, “Differentiating Motivations Underlying Vocational Choice”, in The Journal of Educational Research, volume 64, number 5, Taylor & Francis, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 229:

     The t ratio and factor analysis were used to isolate the common underlying "teacherness" and "businessness" within groups.

   • 2004, Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor: How Passion In Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary, New York, N.Y.,  […]: Currency/Doubleday, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     Everything is built on relationships. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, "It is the humanness that makes a business great, not the 'businessness.'"

   • 2005 March 14, Chris Taylor, quoting David Taylor, “School of Bright Ideas”, in Time, volume 165, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page A12:

     "If you always stay at a company, this barbaric businessness overtakes you," he says. "You're always in execution mode. Here [at Stanford] you get to think more strategically about your profession."

   • 2021 February 4, Wesley Morris, Jenna Wortham, “Best of the Archives: Aretha Franklin”, in Still Processing‎^[1] (podcast), spoken by Jenna Wortham, archived from the original on 6 August 2023:

     So the stank, the swagger about her businessness of her aesthetic, her style. And really, I mean, the type of confidence and nonchalance that she exhibited throughout her life, it's the kind of casualness that only a famous person who is completely assured of their genius and ability to perform and deliver can offer.

Related terms

• get-down-to-businessness

 

Noun

businessness

1. Misspelling of businesses.
   • 2016 March 24, Kashmira Gander, “There are five different personality types - which do you have?”, in The Independent‎^[2], London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-11-08:

     These traits have been used by psychologists to categorise people, but also by businessness in order to manage a large number of peope effectively.