Heepishness

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Heepish +‎ -ness: From the Dickens character Uriah Heep, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.

Noun

Heepishness (uncountable)

  1. Fawning, cloying servility and obsequiousness.
    • 1897 October 15, “Reviews: The English Mail Papers”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, page 693:
      The stories circulated about the measures taken for the Plague were, as Professor Gokhlee admitted in his apology, which we have to-day the advantage of reading in its full Heepishness, a mere pack of lies.
    • 1983 June 26, Anthony Lewis, “The Kissinger Lesson”, in The New York Times, page E21:
      But then there arose a competitor in workaholic Heepishness: Alexander Haig.
    • 2006, Timothy Chappell, Values and Virtues: Aristotelianism in Contemporary Ethics, Oxford University Press, page 73:
      Furthermore, this virtue evidently involves an Aristotelian mean—somewhere between hubris and Heepishness.
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