emptinessn.

Brit.

/ˈɛm(p)tɪnᵻs/, U.S.

/ˈɛm(p)tinᵻs/

Forms: see empty adj. and -ness suffix.

Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: empty adj., -ness suffix.

Etymology: < empty adj. + -ness suffix.

†1. Leisure, idleness. Also in over emptiness: idly, in vain, without cause. Cf. empty adj. 1a. Obsolete. rare.Only in Old English.In quot. OE² apparently mistakenly translating Latin ōstio (ablative of ōstium ‘entrance’) as if ōtio (ablative of ōtium ‘leisure’), perhaps originating from a corrupt reading in the immediate source; contrast the accurate translation (with inngange ingang n.) in MS Hatton.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > inaction > idleness, lack of occupation or activity > [noun]

idlea1000

idlenessc1000

emptinessOE

idlelaikc1175

idleheada1325

idleship1357

otiosity1483

idlehoodc1540

idleteth1584

idleset1591

fallownessa1594

vacantry1598

vacancy1615

lurgy1769

inanity1782

inoccupation1783

vacuity1817

OE Lambeth Psalter xxiv. 4 Confundantur omnes iniqua agentes superuacue : syn gescynde ealle unrihte ðing wyrcende uel donde ofor æmtignysse uel on idel.

OE Wærferð tr. Gregory Dialogues (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) i. iv. 35 Þa sona swa hit þeaw is, þæt þam mode, þe biþ abysgod in manigum þingum, swiþe undercreopeð seo lease olehtung, gif heo ne byþ þy hraþor onweg adrifen fram þære heortan æmtignesse [OE Hatton inngange, L. ostio].

a. The condition of being without contents; (with reference to a room, place, etc.) the condition of being uninhabited or unfurnished; (in religious contexts) the condition of being without divine influence.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > emptiness

leernessc1000

vanitya1400

emptinessc1450

inanity1607

vacuation1611

blankness1850

c1450 in D. Thomson Middle Eng. Grammatical Texts (1984) 34 Also wordes that bytokenyth emtynesse or fullenesse, byggyng or syllyng..wyll constrew wt genityf case.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) 2 Esdras vii. 25 Vnto the full, plenty: and to the emptye, emptynesse.

1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) ii. 45 The moderation of slepe must be measured..by emptynesse or fulnesse of the body.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. iii. 75 His coffers sound With hollow pouertie and emptinesse .

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §300 Appetite consisteth in the Emptiness of the Mouth of the Stomack.

1681 W. Penn in I. Penington Wks. I. sig. aiii^v In that emptiness they waited to be filled of him that filleth all things.

1719 I. Watts Hymns i. cii Blest are the humble souls that see Their emptiness and poverty.

1729 A. Pope Dunciad (new ed.) i. 30 Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, Emblem of Music caus'd by Emptiness.

1747 H. Walpole Let. 26 June in Lett. to H. Mann (1833) II. 220 No idea of the emptiness of London.

1846 R. C. Trench Christ Desire of All Nations vii. 143 This was the emptiness of which Christ's coming should be the fulness.

1931 C. S. Lewis Let. 2 June (2007) III. 1522 The fulness or emptiness of your drawer.

1957 L. Durrell Justine iii. 200 Behind lay the desert, its emptiness echoing like a seashell.

2002 T. Nairn Pariah iv. 58 The habitual emptiness of the Chamber, now crowded only for the hollow mummery of Prime Minister's question time.

b. An empty space; a void, a vacuum. Also as a mass noun.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > [noun] > absolute emptiness of space

vaina1382

emptiness1533

empty1535

vacuity1546

vacuum1550

vacancy1603

voida1618

inanea1676

1533 T. Paynell tr. U. von Hutten De Morbo Gallico xviii. f. 43 Whan the bealy is gyrde in harde, so that the emptynes is fylled,..there can be no hunger.

1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. dj Water..by descending, to leaue Emptines at his backe.

a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1953) VI. 335 A supplying of all emptinesses in our soules.

1698 J. Norris Pract. Disc. Divine Subj. IV. 327 An Emptyness which they [sc. dreams and fancies] can never fill.

1712 J. Warder True Amazons 40 The occasion of this vast Emptiness in the Hive.

1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers ii. xix. 262 It [sc. space] is only an immense, eternal, immoveable, and indestructible void or emptiness.

1849 L. P. Hickok Rational Psychol. ii. 426 To balance ourselves and save the understanding from sinking into the emptiness of mere chance.

1877 W. C. Bryant Little People 346 Where once they made their haunt, was emptiness.

1938 E. A. Powell Free-lance xlvii. 423 Riding a skittish pony along a narrow shelf of rock bordered on the outside by a thousand feet of emptiness is not my idea of enjoyment.

1970 J. Blish Spock must Die! i. 1 The procedure is still called ‘bench-marking’.., though these cubic parsecs of emptiness look like most unattractive sites to park a bench.

2008 Wisdom July (New Eng. ed.) 12/3 The big bang happened, and space began filling the emptiness.

†a. As an attribute of a person: lack of knowledge or sense; inanity; (esp. with reference to a speaker or writer) lack of thorough consideration or proper thought. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > giddiness, empty-headedness > [noun]

giddiheadc1275

giddinessa1290

lighthead1340

vanityc1386

glaikitnessa1500

idleness1535

levity1564

emptiness1577

vainness1591

frivolousnessa1631

volageness1633

grollery1637

brain-giddinessa1652

desipience1656

desipiencya1682

frothinessa1716

inanity1756

frivolity1796

unpracticalness1828

unpracticality1840

bird-wittedness1854

scattiness1959

1577 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. Ephesians xxxviii. f. 270^v Consider how great emptinesse there is in them that professe Christianitie.

1640 E. Reynolds Treat. Passions xxxvii. 481 [His] hesitancy and slownesse of resolution in matter of Learning proceeded not from any emptines or unfurniture.

1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1013 I wonder at Pennius's brevity and emptiness in this argument.

1728 A. Pope Dunciad i. 171 Me, Emptiness and Dulness could inspire, And were my Elasticity, and Fire.

1781 F. Burney Let. June in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (2003) IV. 369 He gave his opinion..with an emptyness & verbosity that rendered the whole dispute..ridiculous.

1844 A. P. Stanley Life & Corr. T. Arnold I. iv. 188 The falsehood and emptiness of the Latin historians.

1871 Southern Rev. Oct. 818 If, in his eagerness to engage attention, a man will make a display of himself, and of his emptiness,..we can only say..‘Oh ! that he would altogether hold his peace.’

b. With reference to anything composed or produced by a person: lack of meaning or substance; poverty of artistic content; slightness, triviality; frivolousness, inconsequentiality.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > [noun]

insolidity1578

emptiness1579

insignificancy1651

no-meaning1672

insignificance1754

inexpression1796

inexpressiveness1815

vacuousness1816

unmeaningness1825

unmeaning1839

pointlessness1845

non-significance1846

meaninglessness1853

unsuggestiveness1858

unexpressiveness1885

nonsense1942

1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue f. 71 I like not to spend good leasure..that in speaking in the ayre, I both may mispend my tyme, and abuse the reader with emptines.

a1658 J. Durham Law Unsealed (1676) 105 Look to our profession..what emptiness is there, much more..shew, then reality.

1699 S. Garth Dispensary iv. 39 Bu[rge]ss deafens all the listning press With Peals of most seraphick Emptiness.

1746 T. Smollett Advice 30 (note) This is a riotous assembly of fashionable people, of both sexes, at a private house, consisting of some hundreds; not unaptly stiled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment.

1787 European Mag. & London Rev. Feb. 84/2 His publication..is the sublimate of superstition, emptiness, and nonsense.

1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 391 The utter emptiness and unmeaningness of the vaunted Mechanico-corpuscular Philosophy.

1881 N.Y. Nation 32 231 The emptiness, or, to use a Carlylism, the ‘putrescent cant’ of most of the talk.

1916 Independent 11 Sept. 361/3 The fantastic vagaries and pretentious emptiness of much romantic writing.

1961 Tulane Drama Rev. 5 iii. 144 Even readaptation of the screenplay, done intact, wouldn't disguise its emptiness.

1996 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 31 May 30 Here, as in the past, one is struck by the slickness as well as the emptiness of his painting.

c. A trifling or trivial entertainment, occupation, etc.; (in later use also) a meaningless or inane statement; a banality. Usually in plural.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > of little importance or trivial

gnatc1000

ball play?c1225

smalla1250

triflec1290

fly1297

child's gamec1380

motec1390

mitec1400

child's playc1405

trufferyc1429

toyc1450

curiosity1474

fly-winga1500

neither mass nor matins1528

boys' play1538

nugament1543

knack?1544

fable1552

nincety-fincety1566

mouse1584

molehill1590

coot1594

scoff1594

nidgery1611

pin matter1611

triviality1611

minuity1612

feathera1616

fillip1621

rattle1622

fiddlesticka1625

apex1625

rush candle1628

punctilio1631

rushlight1635

notchet1637

peppercorn1638

petty John1640

emptiness1646

fool-fangle1647

nonny-no1652

crepundian1655

fly-biting1659

pushpin1660

whinny-whanny1673

whiffle1680

straw1692

two and a plack1692

fiddle1695

trivial1715

barley-strawa1721

nothingism1742

curse1763

nihility1765

minutia1782

bee's knee1797

minutiae1797

niff-naff1808

playwork1824

floccinaucity1829

trivialism1830

chicken feed1834

nonsensical1842

meemaw1862

infinitesimality1867

pinfall1868

fidfad1875

flummadiddle1882

quantité négligeable1885

quotidian1902

pipsqueak1905

hickey1909

piddle1910

cream puff1920

squat1934

administrivia1937

chickenshit1938

cream puff1938

diddly-squat1963

non-issue1965

Tinkertoy1972

1646 J. Mayne Serm. Unity 38 Devout emptinesses and nothings, as serve onely to entertaine the people.

1732 E. Boyd Happy-unfortunate 43 She had a World of diverting Emptinesses in her Head.

1843 G. P. R. James Forest Days I. iii. 33 The little emptinesses which occupy free hearts in the early morning.

1884 Christian Commonw. 11 Dec. 111/2 Unsubstantial emptinesses and moonshiny illusions.

1904 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Nov. 549 She felt herself growing sick of littlenesses and emptinesses. She had an impulse to be earnest with this strong and simple man.

1998 Times (Nexis) 17 Aug. Surely every football follower with brains..is fed up with the platitudinising, nothing-saying talking head, yammering his emptinesses in front of a board full of advertising.

4. With of. The condition of lacking a specified quality or attribute, or (occasionally) the specified contents.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > emptiness > of specific contents

emptiness1585

1585 Abp. E. Sandys Serm. xii. 195 Doest thou force that yoke vpon others which thy selfe so shamefully shakest off? What is emptinesse of reason and iudgement if this be not?

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iii. i. 127 Emptines of Christian loue and charitie.

1642 T. Fuller Holy State iii. iii. 157 Such boasting sounds proceed from emptinesse of desert.

1707 J. Floyer Physician's Pulse-watch 362 The Pulsus profundus..indicates..emptiness of Humours.

1787 A. Serle Christian Remembrancer xv. 93 To possess fullness of bread with emptiness of grace.

1814 J. Colquhoun Treat. on Spiritual Comfort (ed. 2) 179 Think as often of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, as of your own sinfulness; as often of his fulness of grace, as of your own emptiness of grace.

1832 Fraser's Mag. July 648/1 Many a man went away ahungered, and howled from emptiness of food.

1875 W. Maskell Ivories v. 45 To absence of composition..were added neglect and emptiness of form.

2005 J. I. Gellman in W. J. Wainwright Oxf. Handbk. Philos. of Relig. vi. 147 Some have claimed that even for Meister Eckhart emptying out is having one's mind on no object other than God, rather than an absolute emptiness of content.

2006 Third Way Mar. 24/2 I believe that in the trauma of miscarriage and abortion we often come close to that emptiness of faith, the quiet suffering of the soul.

5. Futility, pointlessness; lack of purpose or satisfaction; a feeling of sadness or depression that arises from this.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > uselessness, vanity, or futility > [noun]

vanityc1325

overvoidnessa1382

unnaitnessa1400

unnaitshipa1400

unprofitablenessc1400

voidnessa1425

vainness1567

futility1623

emptiness1632

idlenessa1650

insignificancy1720

futileness1727

pointlessness1845

1632 E. Reynolds Explic. 110th Psalme vii. 516 No man ever did begin at Christ, but went unto him upon meere necessitie, when he had experience of the emptinesse of all his other succours and dependencies.

a1677 J. Taylor Contempl. State Man (1684) ii. i. 179 O the inanity and emptiness of temporal Goods.

1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 271. ⁋4 It has been a most exquisite Pleasure to me..to lay before my Readers the Emptiness of Ambition.

1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 149 Hope..has the wond'rous virtue to educe From emptiness itself a real use.

1860 W. Collins Woman in White 125 Objections that rose to my lips..died away in their own emptiness.

1871 M. E. Braddon Fenton's Quest I. ii. 28 There was no more dulness or emptiness for Gilbert Fenton in his life at Lidford.

1922 E. von Arnim Enchanted April (1989) 215 She was more dejected than ever, overwhelmed by the discrepancy between the splendour outside her,..and the blank emptiness of her heart.

1955 P. Chayefsky Television Plays Author's Note 263 I wanted to show the emptiness of an evening about town.

2005 Dunoon Observer & Argyllshire Standard 25 Feb. 9/5 Don't..stereotype them as junkies or alkys, see the despair, the emptiness, the hurt, the anger.

†6. Lack of solidity or physical existence. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance

airiness1535

slightnessa1616

wanzingness1642

hollowness1648

insubsistence1651

emptiness1695

dreaminess1796

unsubstantiality1838

insubstantiality1848

aeriality1854

vapourishness1860

tenuousness1901

shimmeriness1913

1695 J. Dryden in tr. C. A. Du Fresnoy De Arte Graphica Pref. p. xii 'Tis this which causes the Graces..to subsist in the emptiness of Light, and Shadows.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	emptiness
释义	emptinessn. Brit. /ˈɛm(p)tɪnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈɛm(p)tinᵻs/ Forms: see empty adj. and -ness suffix. Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: empty adj., -ness suffix. Etymology: < empty adj. + -ness suffix. †1. Leisure, idleness. Also in over emptiness: idly, in vain, without cause. Cf. empty adj. 1a. Obsolete. rare.Only in Old English.In quot. OE² apparently mistakenly translating Latin ōstio (ablative of ōstium ‘entrance’) as if ōtio (ablative of ōtium ‘leisure’), perhaps originating from a corrupt reading in the immediate source; contrast the accurate translation (with inngange ingang n.) in MS Hatton. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > inaction > idleness, lack of occupation or activity > [noun] idlea1000 idlenessc1000 emptinessOE idlelaikc1175 idleheada1325 idleship1357 otiosity1483 idlehoodc1540 idleteth1584 idleset1591 fallownessa1594 vacantry1598 vacancy1615 lurgy1769 inanity1782 inoccupation1783 vacuity1817 OE Lambeth Psalter xxiv. 4 Confundantur omnes iniqua agentes superuacue : syn gescynde ealle unrihte ðing wyrcende uel donde ofor æmtignysse uel on idel. OE Wærferð tr. Gregory Dialogues (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) i. iv. 35 Þa sona swa hit þeaw is, þæt þam mode, þe biþ abysgod in manigum þingum, swiþe undercreopeð seo lease olehtung, gif heo ne byþ þy hraþor onweg adrifen fram þære heortan æmtignesse [OE Hatton inngange, L. ostio]. 2. a. The condition of being without contents; (with reference to a room, place, etc.) the condition of being uninhabited or unfurnished; (in religious contexts) the condition of being without divine influence. ΘΚΠ the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > emptiness leernessc1000 vanitya1400 emptinessc1450 inanity1607 vacuation1611 blankness1850 c1450 in D. Thomson Middle Eng. Grammatical Texts (1984) 34 Also wordes that bytokenyth emtynesse or fullenesse, byggyng or syllyng..wyll constrew wt genityf case. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) 2 Esdras vii. 25 Vnto the full, plenty: and to the emptye, emptynesse. 1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) ii. 45 The moderation of slepe must be measured..by emptynesse or fulnesse of the body. 1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. iii. 75 His coffers sound With hollow pouertie and emptinesse . View more context for this quotation 1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §300 Appetite consisteth in the Emptiness of the Mouth of the Stomack. 1681 W. Penn in I. Penington Wks. I. sig. aiii^v In that emptiness they waited to be filled of him that filleth all things. 1719 I. Watts Hymns i. cii Blest are the humble souls that see Their emptiness and poverty. 1729 A. Pope Dunciad (new ed.) i. 30 Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, Emblem of Music caus'd by Emptiness. 1747 H. Walpole Let. 26 June in Lett. to H. Mann (1833) II. 220 No idea of the emptiness of London. 1846 R. C. Trench Christ Desire of All Nations vii. 143 This was the emptiness of which Christ's coming should be the fulness. 1931 C. S. Lewis Let. 2 June (2007) III. 1522 The fulness or emptiness of your drawer. 1957 L. Durrell Justine iii. 200 Behind lay the desert, its emptiness echoing like a seashell. 2002 T. Nairn Pariah iv. 58 The habitual emptiness of the Chamber, now crowded only for the hollow mummery of Prime Minister's question time. b. An empty space; a void, a vacuum. Also as a mass noun. ΘΚΠ the world > space > [noun] > absolute emptiness of space vaina1382 emptiness1533 empty1535 vacuity1546 vacuum1550 vacancy1603 voida1618 inanea1676 1533 T. Paynell tr. U. von Hutten De Morbo Gallico xviii. f. 43 Whan the bealy is gyrde in harde, so that the emptynes is fylled,..there can be no hunger. 1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. dj Water..by descending, to leaue Emptines at his backe. a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1953) VI. 335 A supplying of all emptinesses in our soules. 1698 J. Norris Pract. Disc. Divine Subj. IV. 327 An Emptyness which they [sc. dreams and fancies] can never fill. 1712 J. Warder True Amazons 40 The occasion of this vast Emptiness in the Hive. 1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers ii. xix. 262 It [sc. space] is only an immense, eternal, immoveable, and indestructible void or emptiness. 1849 L. P. Hickok Rational Psychol. ii. 426 To balance ourselves and save the understanding from sinking into the emptiness of mere chance. 1877 W. C. Bryant Little People 346 Where once they made their haunt, was emptiness. 1938 E. A. Powell Free-lance xlvii. 423 Riding a skittish pony along a narrow shelf of rock bordered on the outside by a thousand feet of emptiness is not my idea of enjoyment. 1970 J. Blish Spock must Die! i. 1 The procedure is still called ‘bench-marking’.., though these cubic parsecs of emptiness look like most unattractive sites to park a bench. 2008 Wisdom July (New Eng. ed.) 12/3 The big bang happened, and space began filling the emptiness. 3. †a. As an attribute of a person: lack of knowledge or sense; inanity; (esp. with reference to a speaker or writer) lack of thorough consideration or proper thought. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > giddiness, empty-headedness > [noun] giddiheadc1275 giddinessa1290 lighthead1340 vanityc1386 glaikitnessa1500 idleness1535 levity1564 emptiness1577 vainness1591 frivolousnessa1631 volageness1633 grollery1637 brain-giddinessa1652 desipience1656 desipiencya1682 frothinessa1716 inanity1756 frivolity1796 unpracticalness1828 unpracticality1840 bird-wittedness1854 scattiness1959 1577 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. Ephesians xxxviii. f. 270^v Consider how great emptinesse there is in them that professe Christianitie. 1640 E. Reynolds Treat. Passions xxxvii. 481 [His] hesitancy and slownesse of resolution in matter of Learning proceeded not from any emptines or unfurniture. 1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1013 I wonder at Pennius's brevity and emptiness in this argument. 1728 A. Pope Dunciad i. 171 Me, Emptiness and Dulness could inspire, And were my Elasticity, and Fire. 1781 F. Burney Let. June in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (2003) IV. 369 He gave his opinion..with an emptyness & verbosity that rendered the whole dispute..ridiculous. 1844 A. P. Stanley Life & Corr. T. Arnold I. iv. 188 The falsehood and emptiness of the Latin historians. 1871 Southern Rev. Oct. 818 If, in his eagerness to engage attention, a man will make a display of himself, and of his emptiness,..we can only say..‘Oh ! that he would altogether hold his peace.’ b. With reference to anything composed or produced by a person: lack of meaning or substance; poverty of artistic content; slightness, triviality; frivolousness, inconsequentiality. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > [noun] insolidity1578 emptiness1579 insignificancy1651 no-meaning1672 insignificance1754 inexpression1796 inexpressiveness1815 vacuousness1816 unmeaningness1825 unmeaning1839 pointlessness1845 non-significance1846 meaninglessness1853 unsuggestiveness1858 unexpressiveness1885 nonsense1942 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue f. 71 I like not to spend good leasure..that in speaking in the ayre, I both may mispend my tyme, and abuse the reader with emptines. a1658 J. Durham Law Unsealed (1676) 105 Look to our profession..what emptiness is there, much more..shew, then reality. 1699 S. Garth Dispensary iv. 39 Bu[rge]ss deafens all the listning press With Peals of most seraphick Emptiness. 1746 T. Smollett Advice 30 (note) This is a riotous assembly of fashionable people, of both sexes, at a private house, consisting of some hundreds; not unaptly stiled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment. 1787 European Mag. & London Rev. Feb. 84/2 His publication..is the sublimate of superstition, emptiness, and nonsense. 1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 391 The utter emptiness and unmeaningness of the vaunted Mechanico-corpuscular Philosophy. 1881 N.Y. Nation 32 231 The emptiness, or, to use a Carlylism, the ‘putrescent cant’ of most of the talk. 1916 Independent 11 Sept. 361/3 The fantastic vagaries and pretentious emptiness of much romantic writing. 1961 Tulane Drama Rev. 5 iii. 144 Even readaptation of the screenplay, done intact, wouldn't disguise its emptiness. 1996 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 31 May 30 Here, as in the past, one is struck by the slickness as well as the emptiness of his painting. c. A trifling or trivial entertainment, occupation, etc.; (in later use also) a meaningless or inane statement; a banality. Usually in plural. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > of little importance or trivial gnatc1000 ball play?c1225 smalla1250 triflec1290 fly1297 child's gamec1380 motec1390 mitec1400 child's playc1405 trufferyc1429 toyc1450 curiosity1474 fly-winga1500 neither mass nor matins1528 boys' play1538 nugament1543 knack?1544 fable1552 nincety-fincety1566 mouse1584 molehill1590 coot1594 scoff1594 nidgery1611 pin matter1611 triviality1611 minuity1612 feathera1616 fillip1621 rattle1622 fiddlesticka1625 apex1625 rush candle1628 punctilio1631 rushlight1635 notchet1637 peppercorn1638 petty John1640 emptiness1646 fool-fangle1647 nonny-no1652 crepundian1655 fly-biting1659 pushpin1660 whinny-whanny1673 whiffle1680 straw1692 two and a plack1692 fiddle1695 trivial1715 barley-strawa1721 nothingism1742 curse1763 nihility1765 minutia1782 bee's knee1797 minutiae1797 niff-naff1808 playwork1824 floccinaucity1829 trivialism1830 chicken feed1834 nonsensical1842 meemaw1862 infinitesimality1867 pinfall1868 fidfad1875 flummadiddle1882 quantité négligeable1885 quotidian1902 pipsqueak1905 hickey1909 piddle1910 cream puff1920 squat1934 administrivia1937 chickenshit1938 cream puff1938 diddly-squat1963 non-issue1965 Tinkertoy1972 1646 J. Mayne Serm. Unity 38 Devout emptinesses and nothings, as serve onely to entertaine the people. 1732 E. Boyd Happy-unfortunate 43 She had a World of diverting Emptinesses in her Head. 1843 G. P. R. James Forest Days I. iii. 33 The little emptinesses which occupy free hearts in the early morning. 1884 Christian Commonw. 11 Dec. 111/2 Unsubstantial emptinesses and moonshiny illusions. 1904 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Nov. 549 She felt herself growing sick of littlenesses and emptinesses. She had an impulse to be earnest with this strong and simple man. 1998 Times (Nexis) 17 Aug. Surely every football follower with brains..is fed up with the platitudinising, nothing-saying talking head, yammering his emptinesses in front of a board full of advertising. 4. With of. The condition of lacking a specified quality or attribute, or (occasionally) the specified contents. ΘΚΠ the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > emptiness > of specific contents emptiness1585 1585 Abp. E. Sandys Serm. xii. 195 Doest thou force that yoke vpon others which thy selfe so shamefully shakest off? What is emptinesse of reason and iudgement if this be not? 1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iii. i. 127 Emptines of Christian loue and charitie. 1642 T. Fuller Holy State iii. iii. 157 Such boasting sounds proceed from emptinesse of desert. 1707 J. Floyer Physician's Pulse-watch 362 The Pulsus profundus..indicates..emptiness of Humours. 1787 A. Serle Christian Remembrancer xv. 93 To possess fullness of bread with emptiness of grace. 1814 J. Colquhoun Treat. on Spiritual Comfort (ed. 2) 179 Think as often of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, as of your own sinfulness; as often of his fulness of grace, as of your own emptiness of grace. 1832 Fraser's Mag. July 648/1 Many a man went away ahungered, and howled from emptiness of food. 1875 W. Maskell Ivories v. 45 To absence of composition..were added neglect and emptiness of form. 2005 J. I. Gellman in W. J. Wainwright Oxf. Handbk. Philos. of Relig. vi. 147 Some have claimed that even for Meister Eckhart emptying out is having one's mind on no object other than God, rather than an absolute emptiness of content. 2006 Third Way Mar. 24/2 I believe that in the trauma of miscarriage and abortion we often come close to that emptiness of faith, the quiet suffering of the soul. 5. Futility, pointlessness; lack of purpose or satisfaction; a feeling of sadness or depression that arises from this. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > uselessness, vanity, or futility > [noun] vanityc1325 overvoidnessa1382 unnaitnessa1400 unnaitshipa1400 unprofitablenessc1400 voidnessa1425 vainness1567 futility1623 emptiness1632 idlenessa1650 insignificancy1720 futileness1727 pointlessness1845 1632 E. Reynolds Explic. 110th Psalme vii. 516 No man ever did begin at Christ, but went unto him upon meere necessitie, when he had experience of the emptinesse of all his other succours and dependencies. a1677 J. Taylor Contempl. State Man (1684) ii. i. 179 O the inanity and emptiness of temporal Goods. 1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 271. ⁋4 It has been a most exquisite Pleasure to me..to lay before my Readers the Emptiness of Ambition. 1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 149 Hope..has the wond'rous virtue to educe From emptiness itself a real use. 1860 W. Collins Woman in White 125 Objections that rose to my lips..died away in their own emptiness. 1871 M. E. Braddon Fenton's Quest I. ii. 28 There was no more dulness or emptiness for Gilbert Fenton in his life at Lidford. 1922 E. von Arnim Enchanted April (1989) 215 She was more dejected than ever, overwhelmed by the discrepancy between the splendour outside her,..and the blank emptiness of her heart. 1955 P. Chayefsky Television Plays Author's Note 263 I wanted to show the emptiness of an evening about town. 2005 Dunoon Observer & Argyllshire Standard 25 Feb. 9/5 Don't..stereotype them as junkies or alkys, see the despair, the emptiness, the hurt, the anger. †6. Lack of solidity or physical existence. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance airiness1535 slightnessa1616 wanzingness1642 hollowness1648 insubsistence1651 emptiness1695 dreaminess1796 unsubstantiality1838 insubstantiality1848 aeriality1854 vapourishness1860 tenuousness1901 shimmeriness1913 1695 J. Dryden in tr. C. A. Du Fresnoy De Arte Graphica Pref. p. xii 'Tis this which causes the Graces..to subsist in the emptiness of Light, and Shadows. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.OE
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