neighbourship

• neighborship (American)

From neighbour +‎ -ship. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noaberskup (“neighbourship”), Dutch nabuurschap (“neighbourship”), Low German Naberschaft (“neighbourship”), German Nachbarschaft (“neighbourship”), Swedish naboskap (“neighbourship”).

neighbourship (plural neighbourships)

1. The state or condition of being neighbours; a connection or relationship between people or things which is based simply on living close geographically.
   • 1890, W. A. Clouston, Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers‎:

     He called to his mind and said: "Surely the Ant had in former days his dwelling underneath this tree, and was busy in hoarding a store of provision: now I will lay my wants before her, and, in the name of good neighbourship, and with an appeal to her generosity, beg some small relief.

   • 1907, William J. Dawson, The Quest of the Simple Life‎:

     The travelling artist they knew, the pedlar, the insurance agent, and the cockney beanfeaster; but the stranger who desired permanent neighbourship with them they knew not; him they treated as a lunatic at large.

2. A relationship between people and / or things which is based simply on being of a similar class.
   • 1912, May Sinclair, The Three Bront‎:

     Their conveyance is no handsome carriage, but a rickety dog-cart, unmistakably betraying its neighbourship to the carts and ploughs of some rural farmyard.