A few years back when I wrote the posting on the idiom at one remove, I learned that in addition to remove being a verb it was also a noun. After not giving it a thought since then, I was surprised when I came across it in the above quote. How soon we forget! (>:)Tintoretto [[famed artist of Renaissance Venice]] didn’t idealize his godly or saintly subjects and set them at a remove. He put us nose-close to figures in swirling, cinematic motion; “his high-wire scenes dare us to look away.”—The Week, 26 April, page 23
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remove noun
The degree of difference, distance (as a space, time, etc.) or remoteness separating one person, thing, or condition from another; interval; distance or step apart or away; a degree distant.
<At a short remove upon the same platform was an officer.>
<Her poems work best at a slight remove from the personal.>
<At this remove, the whole incident seems insane.>
<To spill, though at a safe remove, the blood of brave men>
<Only one remove from madness>
[This was gleaned from various online dictionaries]
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The Oxford English Dictionary provides many definitions for the noun "remove," most of which are obsolete, rare, or archaic. The two that are relevant and still in use including their version of the above definition, are:
8a) The condition, state, or fact of being remote or distant; the extent to or degree by which a person or thing is separated from another in time, place, condition, etc.; remoteness, distance; an instance of this. Now the usual sense. [first use – 1628]
3a) The action of moving away or to another place, esp. a new place of residence; withdrawal, departure; an instance of this. Now chiefly North American. [first use – 1555]<2008 “Throughout his memoir, Ayers maintains a remove that's frankly creepy.”—Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California), (Nexis), 14 December, page F8>
________________________________<1992 “His remove to the Kanawha took him back to a world in which he felt far more comfortable.”—D. Boone (1993) by J. M. Faragher, vii, page 263>
The following are some recent quotes from newspaper archives:
Side note: The word “removed” is used to categorize the relationship between some relatives and also denotes separation as does the noun “remove. As an example, with cousins, the term "removed" can refer to the number of generations separating the cousins. So your first cousin once removed is the child of your first cousin. Your second cousin once removed is the child of your second cousin. And your first cousin twice removed is the grandchild of your first cousin.<2016 “Only a handful of times in the past half-century has Hufnagel not been in the middle of camp as a player or a coach. Now he’s at a remove. However, that distance shouldn’t grant anyone a sense of ease.”—Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), 7 June, page 17>
<2017 “. . . here’s an alternative that would allow tech companies to stand at a greater remove: . . . Urging platform owners to interfere, directly or even at a remove, feels like a failure.”—Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California), 2 October, page A13>
<2018 “But if the prevailing impression of classical [[music]] is that it is hard to comprehend, then people are going to interact with it at remove.”— Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois), 9 December, page 4-4>
<2019 “Of course, the sacred places could not be left in their natural state. Yet so much stone and masonry place history at a remove.”—The Citizen (Auburn, New York), 23 January, page A9>
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Ken Greenwald – April 25, 2019