Britishness is the quality, feeling, or ‘flavour’ of being British — the habits, jokes, food, weather-talk, and mixed identities people connect with Britain. Writers and politicians use it when they talk about national character: a sense of Britishness, a debate about Britishness. Though actually, nobody agrees what belongs in the box. Some people mean tea, queues, and being polite; others mean a mix of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish ways of living, plus the many families who made Britain home later. It is a noun, not an adjective: you do not say a Britishness person. The everyday adjective is British. In casual talk people more often just say being British; Britishness sounds a little official, like a newspaper or a school essay.