littleness

Etymology

From Middle English litelnes, litelnesse, from Old English lytelnysse, lȳtelnes, equivalent to little + -ness.

noun

  1. The property of being little, smallness.“For although the Queen had ordered a little Equipage of all things neceſſary while I was in her Service, yet my Ideas were wholly taken up with what I ſaw on every ſide of me, and winked at my own Littleneſs as People do at their own Faults.”
  2. Smallness of spirit; pettiness.“Court, city, church are all shops of smallwares; All having blown to sparks their noble fire, And drawn their sound gold ingot into wire; All trying by a love of littleness To make abridgments, and to draw to less Even that nothing which at first we were;”