pastness
noun
past·ness
ˈpas(t)-nəs 
1
: the quality or state of being past
2
: the subjective quality of something being remembered rather than immediately experienced
almost any popular record … is apt to be tinged with pastness—
Roy McMullen
Roy McMullenExamples of pastness in a Sentence
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This novel, hovering somewhere between the older epistolary structure and pure dramatic monologue—between correspondence and a playscript—becomes magically liberated from the more burdensome narrative machinery, that wheezing apparatus of persuasion and pastness.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 1 June 2020
The extraordinary pastness of our story results from its having taken place before a certain turning point, on the far side of a rift that has cut deeply through our lives and our consciousness.
—David Treuer, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2020
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James Wood, The New Yorker, 1 June 2020
The extraordinary pastness of our story results from its having taken place before a certain turning point, on the far side of a rift that has cut deeply through our lives and our consciousness.
—David Treuer, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2020
Cite this Entry
“Pastness.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastness. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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