Now rare. [f. STUPID a. + -NESS.] The quality of being stupid (in various senses of the adj.): = STUPIDITY.
a. 1628. Ld. Brooke, Treat. Hum. Learning, lxiii. Therefore … to refine Her stupidnesse, as well as ostentation, Let vs set straight that Industrie againe.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., 17. What a stupidnes then is it, that in Mariage,… wee should deject our selvs to such a sluggish and underfoot Philosophy, as to esteem the validity of Mariage meerly by the flesh.
1656. J. Smith, Pract. Physick, 110. Stupidnesse in the Legs and the whole Body, that they can scarse feel the prick of a needle.
1689. Sherlock, Death, iii. § 6 (1731), 139. We may be cut off by a sudden Stroke, or seized with Distraction or Stupidness.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Lethargy, A Person is threaten’d with this Distemper, when … he grows sluggish, and percieves a Stupidness upon himself and is always inclin’d to Sleepiness.
