Heepishness

English

Alternative forms

• Uriah Heepishness

Etymology

From Heepish +‎ -ness: From the Dickens character Uriah Heep, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.

Noun

Heepishness (uncountable)

1. Fawning, cloying servility and obsequiousness.
   • 1897, "Reviews: The English Mail Papers", The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, (15 Oct 1897) p. 693

     The stories circulated about the measures taken for the Plague were, as Professor Gokhlee admitted in his apology, which we have to-day the advantage of reading in its full Heepishness, a mere pack of lies.

   • 1983, Anthony Lewis, "The Kissinger Lesson", The New York Times (26 June 1983) p. E21

     But then there arose a competitor in workaholic Heepishness: Alexander Haig.

   • 2006, Timothy Chappell, Values and Virtues: Aristotelianism in Contemporary Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2006) p. 73

     Furthermore, this virtue evidently involves an Aristotelian mean—somewhere between hubris and Heepishness.

Related terms

• Heepish
• Heepishly
• Uriah Heep
• Uriah Heepish
• Uriah Heepishly