poltroonery
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
poltroonery (countable and uncountable, plural poltrooneries)
- Cowardice; lack of spirit; pusillanimity.
- 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. IX, Abbot Samson”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
- 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.
- 1952, C. S. Lewis, chapter 12, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Collins, published 1998:
- “Your Majesty, your Majesty,” he said, “are you going to tolerate this mutiny, this poltroonery? This is a panic, this is a rout.”
References[edit]
- “poltroonery”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.