Featherweight

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfɛðɚˌweɪt/

Definitions

1. A division in combat sports features competitors of a specified lower mass, while also describing items with minimal weight for convenience, and refers to entities of little significance in their respective fields
2. A category in sports designates athletes with a specific lighter weight class, also referring to objects or materials that are notably lightweight, and describes matters or individuals that lack substantial impact or importance
3. An official weight class for athletes ensures those who compete are below a certain mass, while it also applies to items that are exceedingly light, and characterizes concepts or actors as having negligible influence in a given context

Etymology: "Featherweight" is a plain compound: "feather" joined to "weight," the second element coming from Old English "wiht" and the first from the same Germanic stock as the bird's plumage. Its literal sense is simply something as light as a feather, and that concrete image carries straight through to its later uses. The sporting sense developed from that literal weight. Boxing and wrestling organised bouts by weight class, and "featherweight" became the name for a division of fighters lighter than the one above it. From there the word spread to ordinary objects and materials described as notably light, and then figuratively to matters or people that carry little real force or importance, so a "featherweight" argument is one with no heft behind it.

Synonyms: lightweight, slight, thin, delicate

Antonyms: heavyweight, massive, bulky