The quality or state of being cowardly, timid, or lacking courage; moral weakness or fearfulness.
Formed from 'chickenhearted' plus the abstract noun suffix '-ness,' creating a noun form that names the quality or characteristic. This three-stage word formation shows how English builds increasingly specific meanings.
English allows us to stack suffixes like '-ness' onto compound adjectives, creating words like 'chickenheartedness' that are technically correct but so cumbersome that they rarely survive in actual use—a reminder that grammatical possibility doesn't equal practical survival.
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