poltroonery

English

Etymology

poltroon +‎ -ery

Noun

poltroonery (countable and uncountable; plural poltrooneries)

1. Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. IX, Abbot Samson

     Genius, Poet: do we know what these words mean? […] Nature’s own sacred voice heard once more athwart the dreary boundless element of hearsaying and canting, of twaddle and poltroonery, in which the bewildered Earth, nigh perishing, has lost its way.

References

• poltroonery in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913