pusillanimous

adj.
Lacking courage; cowardly.

[Middle English pusillanimus, from Late Latin pusillanimis : Latin pusillus, weak, diminutive of pullus, young of an animal + animus, reason, mind.]

pusillanimously pu'sil·lan'i·mous·ly adv.

(pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs)

adjective
Lacking courage; timid. [From Latin pusillus (weak, very small), diminutive of pullus (young of an animal) + animus (spirit, mind)

Usage
"Although the admonitory title and scarlet cover of Erik Durschmied's Beware the Dragon is designed to chill the blood of pusillanimous Europeans and Americans already anxious about the rise of China, the book itself is a war correspondent's take on the past, not the future." — Victor Mallet; The Rebalance of Power; The Financial Times (London, UK); Apr 5 2008.

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Pusillanimous is probably a bad word to use for our first Say What entry. It means cowardly. But David Brooks used it in his column on Saturday, and we received over 4,000 lookups of this word since then.

Link: Saturday Night Lite

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

adjective

Ignobly lacking in courage: chickenhearted, cowardly, craven, dastardly, faint-hearted, lily-livered, unmanly. Slang chicken, gutless, yellow, yellow-bellied. See fear/courage.

lacking courage and resolution; marked by contemptible timidity

IN BRIEF: Without spirit or bravery.

It is pusillanimous to leave a friend behind to face a danger alone.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - forsagt, fej

Nederlands (Dutch)
kleinhartig, laf

Français (French)
adj. - pusillanime

Deutsch (German)
adj. - feige

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - άτολμος, λιπόψυχος, ψοφοδεής

Italiano (Italian)
pusillanime

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - pusilânime

Русский (Russian)
малодушный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - pusilánime

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - försagd, räddhågad

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
无气力的, 优柔寡断的, 胆怯的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 無氣力的, 優柔寡斷的, 膽怯的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 무기력한, 겁 많은

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 小心な, いくじなしの, 臆病な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) جبان‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮פחדן‬

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