noun. The state or character of being taciturn; paucity of speech; disinclination to talk.

noun. In Scots law, a mode of extinguishing an obligation (in a shorter period than by the forty years' prescription) by the silence of the creditor, and the presumption that, in the relative situations of himself and the debtor, he would not have been so long silent had not the obligation been satisfied.

noun. Habitual silence, or reserve in speaking.

noun. The trait of being taciturn.

noun. the trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering anything more than necessary

"Bersonin, who despite his taciturnity was a patient teacher, instructed me in Danish, but possibly because he himself only spoke it at second hand, I didn't take to it easily."

uncommunicativeness  

abstemiousness  aloofness  austerity  coldness  decorum