toolishness

== English == === Etymology === From tool +‎ -ish +‎ -ness, influenced by foolishness. === Noun === toolishness The nature of being a tool. a. 1902, Samuel Butler, Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill editors, Notebooks: Selections, 1951, page 122 The simplest tool I can think of is a piece of gravel used for making a road. Nothing is done to it, it owes its being a tool to the fact that is subserves a purpose. A broken piece of granite used for macadamizing a road is a more complex instrument, about the toolishness of which no doubt can be entertained. Excessive concern with tools rather than results.