stiffness

From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff +‎ -ness. Perhaps merging with Middle English stithnesse, stithnysse, from Old English stīþness (“stiffness”).

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stiffness (countable and uncountable, plural stiffnesses)

1. Rigidity or a measure of rigidity.
2. Inflexibility or a measure of inflexibility.
3. Inelegance; a lack of relaxedness.

   His stiffness hampered the conversation.

   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎^[1]:

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   • 2021 September 3, Charudutta Panigrahi, “The Intimacy Of Slangs”, in Odisha News‎^[2]:

     After years when I met a friend inside the aircraft and could sense stiffness in the conversation, a whiff of mild slang was the ice breaker, followed by loads of campus nostalgia.

4. Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work; soreness.