Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being out or beyond; separateness.
  • noun Hence In metaphysics, the state of being out of, and distinguishable from, the perceiving mind, and not merely from the ego or subject; externality.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state of being out or beyond; separateness.
  • noun (Metaph.) The state or quality of being distinguishable from the perceiving mind, by being in space, and possessing material quality; externality; objectivity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The extent to which someone, particularly a lesbian, is open about her sexuality.
  • noun philosophy The collective of things that are distinct from the observer.
  • noun philosophy The property of being distinct.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Popularised by Lynne Pearlman in her 1989 thesis Theorizing Lesbian Oppression and the Politics of Outness in the Case of Waterman v. National Life Assurance

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly coined by George Berkeley for his 1709 Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision

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