lownessn.
/ˈləʊnəs/, U.S. /ˈloʊnəs/ 1.
a. Low rank or status; humble, poor, or lowly state. Formerly also: †degradation, abasement (obsolete). Cf. highness n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > [noun]
waedlec888
wanspeedc893
wanea1100
wandrethc1175
miseasea1200
povertya1225
lowness?c1225
needc1225
orcostc1225
poorness?a1300
unwealtha1300
defaultc1300
porailc1325
straitnessa1340
poorhead1340
mischiefa1375
miseasetya1382
needinessa1382
misterc1385
indigencec1386
scarcitya1387
noughtc1400
scantnessc1400
necessity?1406
penurya1425
povertnessa1434
exilitya1439
wantc1450
scarcenessc1475
needinga1500
povertiesa1500
penurity?a1505
poortith?a1513
debility1525
tenuity1535
leanness1550
lack1555
Needham1577
inopy1581
pinching1587
dispurveyance1590
egency1600
macritude1623
penuriousness1630
indigency1631
needihood1648
necessitousness1650
egestuosity1656
straitened circumstancesa1766
unopulence1796
Queer Street1811
lowliness1834
breadlessness1860
unwealthiness1886
out-of-elbowness1890
secondary poverty1901
Short Street1920
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > low rank or condition > [noun]
lowness?c1225
unnobleyc1384
noughtc1400
ignoblenessc1450
innoblessea1470
deuce-ace1481
ignobility1483
dunghill1537
vilityc1550
baseness1552
humility1623
non-class1973
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > [noun] > condition of being degraded
lowness?c1225
sloughc1250
degradedness1883
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 204 Prude is wilnunge of wurchipe. richt alse þerto ȝeines. edmodnesse [is] for chastunge of wurchipe & luue of lutel hereword & of lachnesse [c1230 Corpus Cambr. lahnesse].
c1350 Psalter (BL Add. 17376) in K. D. Bülbring Earliest Compl. Eng. Prose Psalter (1891) ix. 13 (MED) Haue mercy on me, Lord; se mi lowenes [L. humilitatem] of myn enemys.
c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xvii. l. 18 That al here lyf leden in lowenesse and in pouerte.
a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 8500 Þus salle þai haf þare gret powere, And heghnes, for þair awen gret lawnes here.
?1520 A. Barclay tr. Sallust Cron. Warre agaynst Iugurth xliii. f. 60 Ye lownes and vnnoblenes of Marius encreased to him fauour specially of the commentie which were come of vnnoble blode, as he was.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Matt. xvi. 20–3 But no man can truely glory in him, but he whiche is not offended with hys humilitie and lownes.
1598 R. Dallington View of Fraunce sig. G iijv He raysed the afflicted lownesse of the desolate King.
1634 J. Ford Chron. Hist. Perkin Warbeck ii. sig. D Disdaine Of living so vnknowne, in such a servile And abject lownesse, prompted mee to thoughts Of recollecting who I was.
1679 Jenison's Popish Plot Pref. 7 The unquestionableness of his Extraction may advance him above the common exceptions of Lowness and Plebeity.
a1683 A. Sidney Of Love in Coll. Scarce & Valuable Tracts (1748) II. 407 The Lowness and Meanness of my Fortune and Person, forbids me to hope.
a1739 C. Jarvis tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote (1742) II. iii. xx. 275 I renounce my gentility,..and demean myself to the lowness of the offender.
1776 J. Richardson Richardsoniana 275 The lowness of his original.
1831 R. A. Davenport Dict. Biogr. 84/2 Notwithstanding the lowness of his occupation, he was a man of genius and extensive learning.
1886 Book-lore Feb. 58 After disposing of the charge of lowness of birth.
1905 H. G. Wells Kipps i. vi. 134 To tell anyone that his uncle had been a butler—a servant!—would have seemed the maddest of indiscretions..so great is their horror of ‘Lowness’ of any sort.
2004 M. J. Cardwell Arts & Arms vii. 152 Henry's pursuit of status, titles and honours was seen as an attempt to conceal shame at the lowness of his origin.
b. Frequently with capital initial. With possessive adjective: a mock title of respect for a person of low status or base character. Contrasted with highness n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > title > title or form of address for persons of rank > [noun] > mock title
sir1362
Mas'1575
gallantship1579
elderberriness1589
excelsitude1599
bellyship1600
rascalship1605
madamship1620
muttonship1632
merchantshipa1640
minxshipa1640
prerogativeship1645
fairship1647
mayorship1648
his tallness1656
curship1663
goodyship1663
Mamamouchi1672
lowness1687
ghostship?1689
lairdship1715
grandship1747
supremacy1766
honourableship1767
beautyship1772
gravityship1772
titularity1777
lordship1800
ethereality1806
elegancy1819
king1823
accidency1830
transparency1844
1687 J. Phillips tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote ii. ii. xxx. 432 His Lowness desires the Favour,..to come and prostrate himself, in the first place at your Highnesses Feet.
1771 P. Parsons Newmarket I. 1 Such a salutation would affront their Highnesses and Lownesses.
1837 Knickerbocker Nov. 397 Our introduction to his Serene Lowness, the Rhine, did not give us the most favorable impression of his majesty.
1860 W. H. Russell My Diary in India 1858–9 II. 235 There sat his Highness the Rajah, and here stood his lowness the correspondent.
1921 Pennsylvania Gaz. 25 Mar. 630/1 A uniformed custodian ever stepping forth to salute your highness or cross-question your lowness, as the case may be.
1980 A. O'Toole On Tip of my Tongue ii. 30 Who is the fairest in the land?.. We guess you are, your lowness. We mean, your highness!
2011 Private Eye 4 Mar. 23/1 Stay at home Fergie and watch it on the TV with a packet of pork scratchings and a bottle of Vodka—no offence your Royal Lowness (Geddit???!!!)
2. Lowly demeanour or behaviour; humility, meekness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > humility > [noun]
edmodnessc888
edmedec1000
dafteliȝkc1175
edmodleȝcc1175
meeklaikc1175
meeknessc1175
meekshipc1225
lowshipc1230
humilityc1315
meekheadc1325
lowness1340
povertyc1350
humblessec1374
umblete1377
humbleness1388
humbletec1400
lowlinessa1413
humilness1423
lowliheada1450
self-contempt1563
humilitudea1586
demissness1603
lowlihood1818
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 246 Ac huanne hi byeþ y-cliue op al to þe laste stape, oþerhuil hit behoueþ guo doun be loȝnesse [c1450 Bk. Vices & Virtues mekenesse].
c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xvi. l. 133 Loue and leaute and louhnesse of herte.
c1450 (?c1408) J. Lydgate Reson & Sensuallyte (1901) l. 1501 (MED) She the proude kan enclyne To lownesse and humilyte.
?1542 R. Taverner On Saynt Andrewes Day Gospels f. xlviv This lownes & humilitie of spirite that is here commended, standeth in the affection, and not in outwarde thinges.
1622 F. Rous Dis. of Time ix. 218 The height of Contemplation, is made most safe and profitable to vs by the lownesse of Humilitie, and Infirmity is a chiefe preseruer of Humilitie.
1696 H. Prideaux Let. to Deists 85 Lowness of Spirit, Meekness, and Humility, which are the Consequences of a Religious Temper.
1706 B. Kennett et al. tr. R. Rapin Whole Crit. Wks. II. 81 How shamefully Indecent..to preach the..Meekness and Lowness of Christianity, and the Scandal of the Cross, with a gay Mien and a brilliant Style.
1789 A. Serle Christian Remembrancer (ed. 3) xxxiv. 178 It seems indeed a sort of burlesque upon godliness that a creature..wallowing in the luxurious life, should solemnly profess meekness and lowness of mind.
1876 E. K. Coulson Dante & Beatrice II. iv. v. 155 Through lowness and humility of heart, he has directed that he shall rest in the small Oratory at the end of the sick ward of St Matthew.
1987 R. Kelly Not this Island Music 60 Our adoration must not be humble—lowness Is no gift to what is beautiful.
1995 P. Auksi Christian Plain Style iv. 140 Language, clothing, furniture—all the outward activities of the soul will resemble its preoccupation with humility and lowness.
3. † b. A low-lying part of a country or region. Cf. highness n. 1b. Obsolete. rare.
a. The fact of being low with regard to position or height. Also (with reference to a person's height): shortness (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > low position > [noun]
lownessa1387
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > vertical extent > lack of height > [noun]
lowa1225
lownessa1387
squatness1824
stuntinessa1878
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > vertical extent > extension downwards or depth > [noun] > great or considerable depth
deepnessc1384
lownessa1387
profundity?a1425
profoundness1509
depth1526
lowth1526
hownessa1605
profunditudec1616
profundeur1658
the world > space > shape > unevenness > projection or prominence > [noun] > amount of > small amount of
lownessa1387
the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [noun]
shortness1598
lowness1638
dwarfishness1647
dwarfedness1883
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 291 (MED) Abraham..knewe þat þe temperure þat comeþ of hiȝnesse and lownesse of sterres and planetes comeþ aȝen to temperure at þe fiftiþe ȝere.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. xi. i. 568 Chaungeynge of eyr comeþ of diuers disposicioun, place, and stede of þe erþe... Also of hiȝnesse and lownesse of þe erþe; for in..hillis þe eyr is coolde and in valeyes hoot.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 314 Lownesse, or depnesse, profunditas. Lownesse, ny the grownde, bassitas.
1442 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Jan. 1442 §14. m. 11 By cause of lowenes and straitenes of the said brigge.
?1520 A. Barclay tr. Sallust Cron. Warre agaynst Iugurth xxx. f. xlii He espyed among the yong trees bothe horse & men which wer nat fully hydde, because of the lownesse [L. humilitate] of ye trees.
1583 J. Stockwood tr. J. von Ewich Duetie Magistrate in Time of Plague f. 85v When as there aryseth..out of Church-yardes aboundance of infectious exhalations,..the situation, lownes, and moystnes of the ground, may not a litle increase this inconuenience.
a1608 F. Vere Comm. (1657) 21 A dike or causey,..most used in winter by reason of the lownesse and myrinesse of the country.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) ii. vii. 17 They take the flow o'th'Nyle By certaine scales i'th'Pyramid: they know By'th'height, the lownesse, or the meane: If dearth Or Foizon follow.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §432 The Lownesse of the Bough..maketh the Fruit greater, and to ripen better.
a1637 B. Jonson Under-woods xiii. 119 in Wks. (1640) III Can I discerne how shadowes are decreast, Or growne; by height or lownesse of the Sunne?
1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 256 Augustus..was of a low stature,..but..his lownesse was hid by the fitnesse and equalitie of his members.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 31. ¶2 The Bull-baiting..cannot possibly be exhibited in the Theatre, by Reason of the Lowness of the Roof.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall III. xxxvi. 495 The lowness of the door would not admit the lofty stature of Odoacer: he was obliged to stoop.
1783 Ann. Reg. 1781 Hist. Europe 7/2 Their own lowness..preserved them, in a very great degree, from the fire of the batteries.
1832 W. Macgillivray Trav. & Researches A. von Humboldt xxi. 298 The island of Tortuga remarkable for its lowness and want of vegetation.
1870 Nature 27 Jan. 346/1 Absence of forehead was no evidence of absence of brain capacity; lowness of skull was considered a mark of beauty by some.
1903 C. W. Wood Norwegian By-ways xii. 192 In spite of lowness of stature, there was a certain dignity about him.
1905 ‘V. Cross’ Relig. Evelyn Hastings i. 46 The lowness of the ceiling, the damp, musty smell, the closeness of the walls all round her made her feel suffocated.
1976 Sci. News 110 410/3 Mercury..will rise about an hour and a half ahead of the sun. Its lowness and the light of dawn will make it somewhat difficult to see.
2006 R. Sale Best Walks in S. Wales (rev. ed.) 29 The lowness of the hills—Pen Pumlumon Fawr does not quite make 2500 ft—and its reputation, mean that Plynlimon stays quiet.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > [noun]
lowa1200
bottom1342
lowness?a1425
low countryc1450
lowland1488
lowlanda1522
downland1608
bottomland1612
bottom glade1637
lowth1691
underground1842
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 29 (MED) In Egipt þere ben ij parties, The heghte þat is toward Ethiope, & the loweness [Fr. la basse] þat is towardes Arabye.
4. Low degree of a quality or attribute; smallness of amount, price, value, etc.; (with reference to a musical note) low pitch. Cf. highness n. 5.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > pitch > [noun] > low pitch
lowness1574
deepness1626
the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun]
littlenessOE
littleheadc1350
paucity?a1425
smallness?1532
slenderness?1542
exiguity1604
fewness1617
lowness1708
slightness1747
exiguousness1888
1574 F. Kinwelmersh tr. A. Le Roy Briefe Instr. Musicke Lute sig. S.iiv To tune your lute..a good eare is there vnto..a good helpe, to haue consideration to the extreame highnesse, and the extreame lownesse.
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 3 A Cliefe is a charecter..shewing the heigth and lownes of euery note standing on the same verse.
1616 J. Cotta Triall Witch-craft ii. 14 It must needes be very difficult..to..distinguish this one short small motion into two or three distinct times and parts of motion..the mouing it selfe almost altogether in an insensible exiguitie, and an indiuisible degree of lownesse.
1668 J. Child Brief Observ. Trade 18 The lowness of Interest of Money in Holland..proceeds only from their abundanc thereof.
1684 tr. S. Blankaart Physical Dict. 32 Asaphia is a lowness of Voice, which proceeds from a loose or ill constitution or contemporation of the Organs.
1708 J. C. Compl. Collier 5 in T. Nourse Mistery of Husbandry Discover'd (ed. 3) They have not the Benefit of the lowness of Price as at the Pits.
1797–8 Duke of Wellington in Marquess Wellesley Select. Despatches (1877) 779 Measures having lowness of freight and freedom of trade in view may be adopted upon two principles.
1824 Edinb. Rev. Mar. 20 The relative lowness in the rate of profit in Great Britain.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. xx. 336 This lowness of temperature.
1894 Electr. Engineer 25 May 624/2 The average exchange in the half-year had been 10¾d. against 1s. in the corresponding period, and that record of lowness was being surpassed at the present time.
1937 Southern Econ. Jrnl. 4 131 The lowness of per capita income in the South.
1994 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 27 Feb. 31 I was staggered by the lowness of the marks awarded them by the judges.
2010 S. P. Morreale Competent Public Speaker iii. 49 Vary your pitch, the highness or lowness of your voice, and vary your intensity or volume.
5. Absence of grandeur or loftiness in literary style (sometimes with connotation of vulgarity); an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [noun] > lowness of style
rhetoric1580
lowness1630
broadness1685
breadth1849
1630 E. Cary tr. J. D. Du Perron Reply to Answeare of King iii. viii. 325 The Caluinists doe shake the Authoritie of the two Bookes, & principallie of the second they obiect fiue things; first that the author excuseth the lownesse of his stile, [etc.].
1673 J. Dryden Marriage a-la-Mode Ep. Ded. sig. Biiv If there be any thing in this Play, wherein I have rais'd my self beyond the ordinary lowness of my Comedies.
1726 A. Pope in tr. Homer Odyssey V. Postscr. 279 He, who ventur'd..to imitate Homer's Lownesses in the Narrative.
1728 T. Herring in J. Duncombe Lett. Several Eminent Persons Deceased (1773) I. 287 The inaccuracies of style, the lownesses of expression,..in this translation.
1789 Monthly Rev. May 396 Every poetical reader must feel the inaccuracy and lowness of expression.
1812 Edinb. Rev. Nov. 257 The lowness of its style and diction.
1886 Homiletic Rev. Sept. 252/1 It would be a good thing for the American pulpit if it could rid itself of redundancy and fine writing..at the same time not descending to absolute lowness of style.
1982 Compar. Lit. 34 314 A combination..of proper and strange usage which attains the desired condition of clarity which is not abject, avoiding the obscurity of purely strange usage and the lowness of the proper or literal taken by itself.
1998 C. McIntosh Evol. Eng. Prose (2005) v. 110 The age [sc. the 18th century] delighted most in an easy, middle style, or in lowness for its own sake.
6. The fact of feeling mentally or physically low (low adj. 16a, 16b); depression, melancholy, fatigue, weakness. Frequently in lowness of spirits. Now somewhat archaic.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [noun]
unlustOE
sorrowfulnessa1250
heavinessc1275
elengenessec1320
dullnessc1369
tristourc1380
murknessc1390
tristesse1390
faintness1398
ungladnessa1400
droopingc1400
heavity14..
dejectionc1450
terne?a1513
disconsolation1515
descence1526
marea1529
sadness?1537
dumpishness1548
unblessedness1549
dolorousness1553
ruefulness?1574
dolefulness1586
heartlessness1591
languishment1591
mopishness1598
soul-sickness1603
contristation1605
damp1606
gloominess1607
sableness1607
uncheerfulnessa1617
disconsolateness1624
cheerlessnessa1631
dejectedness1633
droopingness1635
disanimation1637
lowness1639
desponsion1641
disconsolacy1646
despondency1653
dispiritedness1654
chagrin1656
demission1656
jawfall1660
weightedness1660
depression1665
disconsolancy1665
grumness1675
despondence1676
despond1678
disheartenednessa1680
glumness1727
low1727
gloom1744
low-spiritedness1754
blue devils1756
black dog1776
humdudgeon1785
blue devilism1787
dispiritude1797
wishtnessc1800
downheartedness1801
blue-devilage1816
dispiritment1827
downcastness1827
depressiveness1832
dolorosity1835
lugubriosity1840
disconsolance1847
down1856
heavy-heartedness1860
lugubriousness1879
sullenness1885
low key1886
melancholia1896
burn-out1903
mokus1924
downness1927
mopiness1927
deflation1933
wallow1934
1639 F. B. tr. J. L. G. de Balzac Coll. Mod. Epist. IV. 22 These..thoughts..spring from lownesse of spirit; into which I am apt to fall, as soone as I have lost the sight of you.
1695 J. Kettlewell Death made Comfortable ii. 16 These new doubts and suspicions are to be looked on by the Sick Man..as Temptations, and an advantage taken of his present feebleness and lowness of spirit.
1739 J. Wesley Jrnl. 12 July (1830) I. 210 I went to a gentleman who is much troubled with what they call lowness of spirits.
1782 J. C. Smyth in Med. Communications 1 72 She had..a small quick pulse, with great lowness.
1788 Med. Communications 2 182 The Rose, or Erysipelas of the extremities, is commonly preceded by lowness.
a1817 J. Austen Persuasion (1818) III. xi. 232 She had to struggle against a great tendency to lowness . View more context for this quotation
1842 Provinc. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 3 106/1 After any temporary interruption to the use of it [sc. laudanum], her reason for resuming it was the lowness she suffered in its absence; the feelings were lowness, downright illness, cold sweats, loss of memory, difficulty of speech.
1879 Scribner's Monthly July 473/1 All ills that have their origin in lowness of spirits.
1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 Mar. 568/1 Many of the complaints of nervous depression, lowness, and worry are really due to gout.
1990 A. S. Byatt Possession x. 170 Both my dear friend and I have been somewhat afflicted with a slight feaver [sic] and consequent lowness of spirits.
2011 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 27 Mar. Those symptoms include prolonged lowness, sadness or anger, tiredness and loss of enjoyment of life.
7. Lack of nobility or refinement in character or behaviour; meanness, baseness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > ignobleness or baseness > [noun]
villainyc1386
simplessea1393
littlenessa1400
unnoblenessc1400
unnobilitya1425
unnobletya1425
ignoblenessc1450
ignobility?a1475
vileness1549
vilityc1550
haskardy?1578
dunghillry1581
indignity1589
beggarya1616
ignoblesse?1616
poorness1625
lowness1652
meanness1660
society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [noun] > baseness or moral vileness
vilety?c1225
villainy?c1225
vilehead1340
caitiftya1400
vilitya1425
ignoblenessc1450
ignobility?a1475
vileness1526
baseness1537
dunghillry1581
base-mindedness1582
vildness1597
beggarya1616
lowness1652
villainya1719
caddishness1868
bounderishness1899
1652 T. Manton Saints Triumph over Death 30 in C. Love Nat. Mans Case Stated What a baseness & lowness of spirit is this? to fear an enemy so often vanquished by Christ and his Saints?
1749 J. Orr Sermons II. vii. 202 Superstition..begets such Ignorance and Stupidity, such Lowness and Baseness of Mind in Men, as naturally to prepare them for a State of Slavery.
1763 J. Boswell Jrnl. 5 Dec. in F. A. Pottle Boswell in Holland (1952) 83 The Comtesse showed a lowness, a Dordt mercantility in suspecting that you understood Hollands.
1850 Westm. & Foreign Q. Rev. 53 503 The severance of the sexual embrace from the love which alone justifies it..which alone rescues it from the lowness of a mere animal appetite.
1884 Lady Verney in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 554 Wickedness and lowness are necessary to show forth the good and the high.
1978 tr. in S. D. Goitein Mediterranean Society III. viii. 17 Our brother, may God keep him—you know the lowness of his character and nature.
1994 Washington Times (Nexis) 28 Jan. a23 Much of the lowness, ugliness and moral bankruptcy of his character emerged from his own lips during the trial of his wife.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?c1225