[f. LOW a. + -NESS.]
1. The quality or condition of being LOW.
a. In physical applications: Smallness of elevation from the ground or of prominence from a surface; situation at a low level; † shortness of stature.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xxxi. (1495), 245. Amonge the tokens of Tysyk ben … lowenesse of the roundenesse of eyen.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 314/2. Lownesse, or depnesse, profunditas. Lownesse, ny the grounde, bassitas.
1442. Rolls of Parlt., V. 44/1. By cause of the lowenes and straitenes of the said Brigge.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. vii. 22. They know By’th’height, the lownesse, or the meane.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 32. The Lownesse of the Bough … maketh the Fruit greater, and to ripen better.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Underwoods (1640), 181. Can I discerne how shadowes are decreast, Or growne; by height or lownesse of the Sunne?
1638. F. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 256. Augustus … was of a low stature,… but … his lownesse was hid by the fitnesse and equalitie of his members.
1781. Hist. Eur., in Ann. Reg., 7/2. Their own lowness … preserved them … from the fire of the batteries.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xxi. 298. The island of Tortuga remarkable for its lowness and want of vegetation.
b. Low or depressed condition with regard to station, rank, fortune or estimation; † degradation, abasement.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 278. Edmodnesse is … luue of lute hereword & of louhnesse.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 8500. Þus salle þai haf gret powere, And heghnes, for þair awen gret lawnes here.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 18. That al here lyf leden in lowenesse and in pouerte.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. xvi. 20–23. But no man can truely glory in him, but he whiche is not offended with hys humilitie and lownes.
1598. Dallington, Meth. Trav., G iij b. He raysed the afflicted lownesse of the desolate King.
c. 1655. A. Sidney, in 19th Cent. (1884), Jan., 63. The lownesse and meannesse of my fortune and person forbids me to hope.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Prior. The lowness of his original.
1886. Book-lore, Feb., 58. After disposing of the charge of lowness of birth.
† c. Humility, lowliness, meekness. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 8765. And ȝit wyþ gret lownesse of hert, þat pruyde turne hit nought ouerthwert.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVI. 133. Loue and leaute and louhnesse of herte.
c. 1430. Lydg., Reas. & Sens., 1501. She the proude kan enclyne To lownesse and humilyte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 314/2. Lownesse, or mekenesse, humilitas. Lownesse, and goodnesse in speche, affabilitas.
d. Low degree of any quality; low pitch (of a note); smallness of a mount, price, temperature, etc.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 3. A Cliefe is a character … shewing the heigth and lownes of euery note standing on the same Verse.
1690. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 31. The lowness of interest of money in Holland … proceeds only from their abundance of coin.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 18. They have not the Benefit of the lowness of Price as at the Pits.
1797–8. Wellington, in Owen, Desp., 779. Measures having lowness of freight and freedom of trade in view may be adopted upon two principles.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xx. 336. This lowness of temperature.
† e. Want of elevation in literary style; an instance of this. Obs.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, Ded. If there be any thing in this Play wherein I have rais’d my self beyond the ordinary Lowness of my Comedies.
1725. Pope, Postscr. to Odyssey (1726), V. 299. The more he was forc’d upon figures and metaphors to avoid that lowness. Ibid., 306. He, who ventur’d … to imitate Homer’s Lownesses in the Narrative.
1728. Dr. Herring, in J. Duncombe, Lett. (1773), I. 287. The inaccuracies of style, the lownesses of expression,… in this translation.
f. Want of elevation in character; meanness, baseness.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. ii. § 8. Who could but imagine a strange lowness of spirit in those who could fall down and worship the basest … of creatures?
1884. Lady Verney, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 554. Wickedness and lowness are necessary to show forth the good and the high.
g. Mental or nervous depression. Now only explicitly lowness of spirits.
1739. Wesley, Jrnl., 12 July (1830), I. 210. I went to a gentleman who is much troubled with what they call lowness of spirits.
1782. J. C. Smyth in Med. Comm., I. 72, note 2. She had … a small quick pulse, with great lowness.
c. 1815. Jane Austen, Persuas. (1833), I. xi. 300. She had to struggle against a great tendency to lowness.
1822. Good, Study Med., II. 437. Great languor, lowness and oppression at the præcordia.
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 45. He felt occasionally that lowness of spirits from which, when their prospects are clouded,… few are wholly exempted.
2. As a mock title of dignity.
1771. P. Parsons, Newmarket, I. 1. Such a salutation would affront their Highnesses and Lownesses.
1790. H. Walpole, Lett. to Miss Berrys, 8 Nov. His turbulent Lowness of Brabant.
1860. Russell, Diary India, II. 235. There sat his Highness the Rajah, and here stood his lowness the correspondent.
† 3. concr. The low part of a country. Obs.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), v. 46. In Egipt there ben 2 parties; the Heghte, that is toward Ethiope; and the Lowenesse, that is towardes Arabye.
