[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
† 1. Foolishness, folly, stupidity. Obs.
Very common in the 17th century.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., IV. 74. When as a sudden sottishnesse or follie had surprizd And caught th’ unwary louer fast.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, IV. i. 108. This silence may proceed sometimes of sottishnesse, because a man knowes not how to reason.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, Goth. Wars, I. 27. He laughed at their sottishnesse, in hoping to bring their Oxen to their Enemies walls so unadvisedly.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. xxiii. The idle conceit of the Fish Remora, which mens sottishness hath made a vulgar one.
a. 1758. J. Edwards, in Spurgeon, Treas. David, IV. 301. The sottishness of their being insensible of God’s all-seeing eye.
2. Condition or conduct typical of a sot: esp. indulgence in drinking to excess.
1648. G. Daniel, Eclog, iii. 315. In time depart [thou] From the bewitching Sottishnes of Sin.
1660. Ingelo, Bentiv. & Ur., II. (1682), 161. They naturally sink themselves into an unspeakable Sottishness.
1706. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 222. The Sottishness of a debauched Understanding.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos., IV. ii. (1841), 180. That solitary sottishness which waits neither for company nor invitation.
1855. Maurice, Learning & Working, 322. I cannot conceive how a people, fallen … into feebleness, strife and sottishness, could have escaped the severest punishments.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 29. The stupid sottishness of the confirmed voluptuary.
