different between vagueness vs vaguery

English

Etymology

vague +? -ness

Noun

vagueness (countable and uncountable, plural vaguenesses)

1. (uncountable) The condition of being unclear; vague.
2. (countable) Something which is vague, or an instance or example of vagueness.
   • 1857, Thomas Cogswell Upham, Elements of Mental Philosophy, page 329

     If a man's deep and conscientious regard for the truth be such that he cannot, consistently with the requisitions of his moral nature, repeat to others mere vaguenesses and uncertainties, he will naturally give such strict and serious attention to the present objects of inquiry and knowledge, that they will remain in his memory afterward with remarkable distinctness and permanency.

Translations

English

Etymology

vague +? -ery, perhaps influenced by vagary. Attested since at least the 1800s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ve????i/
• Homophone: vagary

Noun

vaguery (countable and uncountable, plural vagueries)

1. (uncountable) Vagueness, the condition of being vague.
   • 1859, New Exegesis of Shakespeare, page 245–246:

     […] this badge of rivalry and intrusion, and of the vaguery and vacillation which restrain them through dread of danger.

   • 1977 (first publication; republication in 2003), Tom Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain: crisis and neo-nationalism - Page 68:

     As a matter of fact, the particular breadth and vaguery of residual all-British consciousness decays more readily into racialism than into a defined, territorially restricted nationalism.

   • 1988, Kenneth Pickering, How to Study Modern Drama:

     There is a sharp and effective contrast between the incisiveness and energy of his speech and the vaguery and haziness he is attacking.
2. (countable) A vagueness, a thing which is vague, an example of vagueness.
3. (countable, in the plural) An eggcorn for vagary.

Translations

See also

• vagary