Dictionary

dinginess en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈdɪndʒɪnəs/ (UK)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English dingy Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English dinginess From dingy + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The state or quality of being dingy.
   • The streets were thunderous; a vast energy heaved under the universal coating of dinginess. 1918, Booth Tarkington, chapter 31, in The Magnificent Ambersons, Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., page 437:
   • His nether garments were of a blueish gray—violent in its colours once, but sobered now by age and dinginess—and were so stretched and strained in a tough conflict between his braces and his straps, that they appeared every moment in danger of flying asunder at the knees. 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 34:
   • He was a pitiful image of shabby gentility and the dinginess of “reduced circumstances.” 1871 March–April, Henry James, Jr., “A Passionate Pilgrim”, in A Passionate Pilgrim, and Other Tales, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 31 January 1875, →OCLC, chapter 2, page 110:
   • The cramped dinginess of such important stations as Grantham and Peterborough has to be experienced to be believed. 1944 November and December, Talisman, “A Broadening Horizon”, in Railway Magazine, page 340:

Forms