Skip to content

meanness

noun

  1. personal quality characterized as a vice of "lowness" or cruelty
L323746 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English mean Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English meanness From mean + -ness.

  1. The condition, or quality, of being mean (any of its definitions)

    This figure is of a later date, by the meanness of the workmanship.

  2. A mean act.

    There are enough meannesses in everyone — ourselves included — to make for us a contemptible world, if we select the meannesses and let our minds dwell upon them.