Openness is a readiness to be honest and to listen. Openness to ideas, a spirit of openness, greater openness.
It is two things at once — willingness to disclose and willingness to receive — and in personality research openness to experience is one of the five main traits measured, covering curiosity and appetite for the new. In government it means transparency. Note open; and that the word is Old English.
1nounopennessA readiness to be honest and to listen.
“The new boss encouraged openness, so staff felt free to share their worries.”
openness is a quality of receptiveness.
Old English openness is open plus -ness. Open comes from a Germanic root related to up.
Old English
openness — openness, publicity
Middle English
*opennesse
English, today
openness
From Middle English opennesse, from Old English openness (“openness, publicity”), equivalent to open + -ness. Cognate with Old High German offannussi (“disclosure, revelation, openness”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA