[f. SUPERFICIAL a. + -NESS.]

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  1.  = SUPERFICIALITY 3.

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1624.  Gataker, Transubst., 118. The Superficialnesse of his silly and unlearned Adversarie.

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1661.  Gauden, Consid. Liturgy, 10. That rudenesse and unpreparednesse, that barrennesse and superficialnesse,… to which every private Minister is daily subject.

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1711.  Countrey-Man’s Lett. to Curate, 95. The Curat in the Answer manifestly Writes with a Superficialness that’s below even Table-chat.

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1827.  Hare, Guesses, Ser. II. (1848), 60. Herder … owing to the superficialness of his metaphysical knowledge, had but vague conceptions with regard to the progress of mankind.

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1860.  Emerson, Cond. Life, Fate, Wks. (Bohn), II. 309. Our America has a bad name for superficialness.

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a. 1902.  A. B. Davidson, Called of God, x. 258. This sterner side usually showed itself, when Christ had to deal with sentiment, or propriety, or superficialness.

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  2.  = SUPERFICIALITY 1.

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1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 72. It [sc. mediastinitis] might be suspected from the intensity and superficialness of post-sternal pain.

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