littleness

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English litelnes, litelnesse, from Old English lytelnysse, lȳtelnes, equivalent to little +‎ -ness. === Noun === littleness (countable and uncountable, plural littlenesses) The property of being little, smallness. 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Part III, Sect. 21, pp. 161-162,[1] Littleness, merely as such, has nothing contrary to the idea of beauty. The humming bird both in shape and colouring yields to none of the winged species, of which it is the least; and perhaps his beauty is enhanced by his smallness. Smallness of spirit; pettiness. ==== Translations ====