English

Noun

poltroonery ‎(countable and uncountable, plural poltrooneries)

1. Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. IX, Abbot Samson

     Genius, Poet: do we know what these words mean? […] Nature’s own sacred voice heard once more athwart the dreary boundless element of hearsaying and canting, of twaddle and poltroonery, in which the bewildered Earth, nigh perishing, has lost its way.

   • 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Collins, 1998, Chapter 12,

     “Your Majesty, your Majesty,” he said, “are you going to tolerate this mutiny, this poltroonery? This is a panic, this is a rout.”

References

• poltroonery in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913