different between dimness vs dinginess

English

Etymology

From Middle English dymnes, dymnesse, from Old English dimnes, dymnys, dimness (“dimness, darkness, obscurity”), equivalent to dim +? -ness.

Noun

dimness (countable and uncountable, plural dimnesses)

1. The state of being dim, poorly illuminated, almost dark.

Translations

Anagrams

• desmins, endisms, missend

English

Etymology

dingy +? -ness

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?nd??n?s/

Noun

dinginess (usually uncountable, plural dinginesses)

1. The state or quality of being dingy.
   • 1844, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman & Hall, Chapter Four, p. 34,^[1]

     His nether garments were of a blueish gray—violent in its colours once, but sobered now by age and dinginess—and were so stretched and strained in a tough conflict between his braces and his straps, that they appeared every moment in danger of flying asunder at the knees.

   • 1875, Henry James, A Passionate Pilgrim, Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., Chapter 2, p. 110,^[2]

     He was a pitiful image of shabby gentility and the dinginess of “reduced circumstances.”

   • 1918, Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons, Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., Chapter 31, p. 437,^[3]

     The streets were thunderous; a vast energy heaved under the universal coating of dinginess.