† niggardnessn.

c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica iv. 227 The left hande with [f]yngres fast compact to-gedre signyfieth inordynate [cou]etise and nega [r] denes.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Ecclus. Contents xl The vnfaithfullnes and nigardnesse of the vngodly.

1562 W. Turner Bk. Natures Bathes Eng. f. 6, in 2nd Pt. Herball Some for nygardnes or for povertye..eat evell and unholsome meates.

1568 W. Dunbar in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1928) III. 15 Ȝe tak þat nigirtness of ȝour muder.

1612 W. Fennor Cornu-copiæ 2 A liberall man, and void of niggardnesse.

a1648 Ld. Herbert Occas. Verses (1665) 59 They term all thy heat, frowardness; Thy solitude, self-pride; fasts, niggardness.

1764 ‘G. Psalmanazar’ Memoirs 182 I have seen so many instances of his nigardness.

1799 J. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Perth 269 What might..appear..to be a niggardness in nature, or a defect in the bounty of heaven.

1849 D. Rock Church our Fathers II. 315 To hinder the niggardness of surviving relatives from cheating the dead out of the Church's services.

1884 F. Galton in Fortn. Rev. No. 36. 181 We must guard ourselves against supposing that the moral faculties which we distinguish by different names, as courage, sociability, niggardness, are separate entities.

1891 Littell's Living Age 10 Jan. 66/2 Calamity enfolds her, like the shadow of a ban, And the niggardness of nature makes the misery of man.