sottishness
(ˈsɒtɪʃnɪs)
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
† 1. Foolishness, folly, stupidity. Obs.
Very common in the 17th century.
| 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. iv. 74 When as a sudden sottishnesse or follie had surprizd And caught th' unwary louer fast. 1604 T. Wright Passions iv. i. 108 Silence may proceed sometimes of sottishnesse, because a man knowes not how to reason. 1653 Holcroft Procopius, Goth. Wars i. 27 He laughed at their sottishnesse, in hoping to bring their Oxen to their Enemies walls so unadvisedly. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. xxiii, The idle conceit of the Fish Remora, which mens sottishness hath made a vulgar one. a 1758 J. Edwards in Spurgeon Treas. David IV. 301 The sottishness of their being insensible of God's all⁓seeing eye. |
2. Condition or conduct typical of a sot: esp. indulgence in drinking to excess.
| 1648 G. Daniel Eclog iii. 315 In time depart [thou] From the bewitching Sottishnes of Sin. 1660 N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. ii. (1682) 161 They naturally sink themselves into an unspeakable Sottishness. 1706 Stanhope Paraphr. III. 222 The Sottishness of a debauched Understanding. 1785 Paley Mor. Philos. iv. ii. (1841) 180 That solitary sottishness which waits neither for company nor invitation. 1855 Maurice Learning & Working 322, I cannot conceive how a people, fallen..into feebleness, strife and sottishness, could have escaped the severest punishments. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 29 The stupid sottishness of the confirmed voluptuary. |