word usage - "Stupidity" or "Stupidness" - What should I use? Can I use either of them?


I got into a debate with a colleague when I said "Look at this level of stupidness" and he said "It's not stupidness, it's stupidity".


Here I am, trying to win a debate.



Answer



Stupidity dates back to the 16th century and has always been the more common term. Stupidness appears to be a later variant which actually has always been used rarely.


Stupidity vs stupidness:




  • As nouns the difference between stupidness and stupidity is that stupidness is rare but both refer to the quality or state of being stupid.



Ngram: stupidity vs stupidness.


According to the Oxford Dictionary Online stupidness is mainly a West Indian usage:



(Mass noun) chiefly West Indian - Foolish or nonsensical talk or behaviour: girl, what stupidness are you talking?



and the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage offers a few examples of its usage such as:




  • Nonsense; stupid thinking; an absurdity, a. We asked Mr James to attend a Conference, just a feu: months ago that teas. He said he was not able to go. He is the President of the Senate and to talk stupidness like that around this table around...



Stupidity:




  • 1540s, "want of intelligence," from Latin stupiditatem (nominative stupiditas) "dullness, stupidity, senselessness," from stupidus "confounded, amazed; dull, foolish" (see stupid). It also at various times meant "lack of feeling or emotion" (1560s); "stupor, numbness" (c. 1600).



-ity (suffix):




  • suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives, meaning "condition or quality of being ______," from Middle English -ite, from Old French -ité and directly from Latin -itatem (nominative -itas), suffix denoting state or condition, composed of connective -i- + -tas.



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