Also wrongheadedness. [f. prec. + -NESS.]
1. The quality or character of being wrong-headed; perversity of judgment or intellect.
In frequent use from c. 1850.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, p. xii. The Limits that separat Wisdom from Folly, Wrong-headedness from intellectual Sanity.
1752. H. Walpole, Lett. to Mann (1834), III. 5 There is no end of his misfortunes and wrong-headedness.
1792. Ann. Reg., Hist., 8. The wrongheadedness and insanity of Mr. Godwin’s publication must be admitted.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xxiv. (1857), 341. The wrongheadedness of a jury.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 299. [It] is enough with many to convict the inquirer of wrong-headedness and credulity.
1889. Baring-Gould, Arminell, xli. Through youthful impetuosity and wrongheadedness I have jumped out of my social world.
2. With pl. A perverse or untoward act.
1748. Chesterf., Lett., 18 Nov. He was enabled … to carry them [sc. the Powers] on to the main object of the war, notwithstanding their … separate views, jealousies, and wrongheadednesses.
