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Glite Dictionary
📜 Old-fashioned ideas 👃 A musty smell
fustiness

fustiness

8.8
A way of being old-fashioned and too formal that resists change
  • noun
  • /ˈfʌstɪnɪs/
translation icon : anticuado
  • His fustiness made it hard for him to adapt to new ideas.

Examples

  • The fustiness of the old library was palpable.

  • The fustiness of the club's rules discouraged younger members from joining.

  • Critics complained about the fustiness of the museum's outdated exhibits.

  • He tried to modernize the office and get rid of its fustiness.

  • His fustiness made it difficult for him to accept new ideas and approaches in the workplace.

  • Although the building was impressive, its fustiness gave it an unwelcoming atmosphere.

  • She found the fustiness of his views stifling, as he resisted any modern perspectives on the topic.

Synonyms

old-fashionedness
vsfustiness
8.1

Being not modern and like things from the past

adds a sense of excessive formality and resistance to change
frumpiness
vsfustiness
  • Informal
6.8

A style of dress that is old-fashioned and untidy

focuses on excessive formality and resistance in ideas or behavior

Antonyms

innovation
310 3.9

Bringing in new ideas or ways of doing things

modernity
18 5.8

A condition of life now that shows new ideas, styles, or technology

How Old-Fashioned

stodginess
  • UK
8.4
fustiness
8.8

Surface Forms

fustiness singular
fustinesses plural

Morphology

fustiness = fusty (transparent) = fusty + ness

Standard nominalization from the adjective 'fusty' with a clear meaning relation to the adjective.

Etymology

Fustiness comes from fustian, an old 'heavy cloth' that grew into a sign for showy, old-fashioned speech and behaviour, so imagine someone in dusty, formal clothes speaking in a stiff way. That's why fustiness can mean being overly formal or stuck in old ideas.