slightingly

English edit

WOTD – 9 January 2024

Etymology edit

From slighting (“in the manner of a slight, belittling, deprecative”, adjective) +‎ -ly (suffix forming adverbs).^[1]

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈslaɪtɪŋli/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈslaɪtɪŋli/, [-ɾɪŋ-]
Audio (US) (file)
Hyphenation: slight‧ing‧ly

Adverb edit

slightingly (comparative more slightingly, superlative most slightingly)

(archaic) In a slighting manner; belittlingly, contemptuously.
Synonyms: deprecatively, disdainfully, dismissively, disparagingly
- 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Tuesday Morning, the Sixth of My Happiness”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 291:
  Huſh, Siſter! Huſh! ſaid he: I vvill not bear to hear her ſpoken ſlightingly of! 'Tis enough, that to oblige your violent and indecent Caprice, you make me compromiſe vvith you thus.
- 1791, James Boswell, “[1775]”, in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 515:
  After having talked ſlightingly of muſick, he vvas obſerved to liſten very attentively vvhile Miſs Thrale played on the harpſichord, […]
- 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 62:
  "I am astonished, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet, "that you should be so ready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think slightingly of anybody's children, it should not be of my own however."
- 1832, Edward Berens, “Letter X. English Reading.”, in Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford, […], London: […] [Gilbert & Rivington] for J. G. & F. Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 145–146:
  In order to enter with more discrimination into the style of our different authors, read often "Blair's Lectures." They are, I believe, sometimes spoken slightingly of by men of learning; I, however, as an unlearned man, think them particularly useful.
- 1880, John Nichol, “1821–1823. Pisa—Genoa—Don Juan.”, in John Morley, editor, Byron (English Men of Letters), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 167:
  He [Lord Byron] is fond of gossip, and apt to speak slightingly of some of his friends, but is loyal to others.
- 1899, Knut Hamsun, “Part III”, in George Egerton [pseudonym; Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright], transl., Hunger […], London: Leonard Smithers and Co […], →OCLC, page 161:
  In order to console myself—to indemnify myself in some measure—I take to picking all possible faults in the people who glide by. I shrug my shoulders contemptuously, and look slightingly at them according as they pass.
- 1915, James Branch Cabell, chapter V, in The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck […], New York, N.Y.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Company, →OCLC, page 104:
  The colonel touched upon the time when buzzards, in the guise of carpet-baggers, had battened upon the recumbent form; and spoke slightingly of divers persons of antiquity as compared with various Confederate leaders, whose names were greeted with approving nods and ripples of polite enthusiasm.

Related terms edit

Translations edit

in a slighting manner — see contemptuously

References edit

^ “slightingly, adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “slightingly, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1] “slightingly, adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “slightingly, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1]