vertiginousness

ver·tig·i·nous

(vər-tĭj′ə-nəs)

adj.

1. Turning about an axis; revolving or whirling.

2. Affected by vertigo; dizzy.

3. Tending to produce vertigo: "my small mind contained in earthly human limits, not lost in vertiginous space and elements unknown" (Diana Cooper).

4. Inclined to change quickly; unstable.

[From Latin vertīgō, vertīgin-, a whirling, from vertere, to turn; see version.]

ver·tig′i·nous·ly adv.

ver·tig′i·nous·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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vertiginousness

noun

A sensation of whirling or falling:

dizziness, giddiness, lightheadedness, vertigo, wooziness.

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References in periodicals archive ?

What separated one from the next was the vertiginousness of a neckline, the presence or absence of sleeves, the length of a train, draping silhoettes, saris and the occasional cape.

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In this light, Borges may be seen as performing a double restoration in and by his theory of transpersonal immortality: that theory restores the metaphysical insights upon which it is built to the condition of depth and vertiginousness proper to them, but it also restores to their proper place in our imaginations our everyday modes of understanding, and coping with, what we cannot but conceive of as our fragile and limited individual lives.

Borges and the value of immortality: an analytic perspective

This is certainly the primary force of Milgram's authority experiments: others had done research on conformism and authority, but what set Milgram's apart was the vertiginousness of the narrative he made out of men.