helplessness: difference between revisions

From helpless +‎ -ness.

helplessness (usually uncountable, plural helplessnesses)

1. The state of being helpless.
   • 1950, L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics‎^[1], New Era Publications, published 1999, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 10:

     From the most ancient times to the present, in the crudest primitive tribe or the most magnificently ornamented civilization, man has found himself in a state of awed helplessness when confronted by the phenomena of strange illnesses or aberrations.

   • 2021 October 8, Metroid Dread, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, scene: Adam Briefing, level/area: Cataris:

     ADAM: 'You are faced with overwhelming power. Accept your helplessness.'

2. A feeling of inadequacy or impotence.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

• impotence

• learned helplessness

• powerlessness

• helplessness in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “helplessness”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “impotence” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.