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Word of the DayMonday, January 14, 2002

pusillanimous

\pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs\ , adjective:

Lacking in courage and resolution; contemptibly fearful; cowardly.

Quotes:

Evil, unspeakable evil, rose in our midst, and we as a people were too weak, too indecisive, too pusillanimous to deal with it.

-- Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, October 20, 1999

Under the hypnosis of war hysteria, with a pusillanimous Congress rubber-stamping every whim of the White House, we passed the withholding tax.

-- Vivien Kellems, Toil, Taxes and Trouble

You are now anxious to form excuses to yourself for a conduct so pusillanimous.

-- Ann Radcliffe, The Italian

Origin:

Pusillanimous comes from Late Latin pusillanimis, from Latin pusillus, "very small, tiny, puny" + animus, "soul, mind."