Meaner

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. To show a heightened level of unkindness or malice To suggest a decrease in ethical behavior or benevolence To embody a lower caliber of character or morality in a negative manner
2. Displaying a greater degree of cruelty or harshness than usual
3. Acting with increased nastiness or ill will toward others

Etymology: "Meaner" is the comparative of "mean," and the comparative is the form of the adjective you'd use to compare two people or things. The root "mean" has an unusual history: in Old English, "mǣne" meant "common, shared, of lowly rank," and it was in that sense that it eventually produced the modern meanings of stingy and nasty. Over the Middle English period, a word for ordinary or humble people slid toward describing people who lacked dignity, then toward those who were petty or grudging, and finally toward cruelty. The comparative "meaner" follows the regular English pattern of adding "-er" to a short adjective, so it needed no separate invention. Its sense of "more nasty" is the one most speakers now hear first, though the older "more stingy" meaning remains common in phrases like "meaner with money." The meaning in this sense is the same as the base adjective's, just intensified.

Synonyms: crueler, harsher, stingier

Antonyms: nicer, kinder, generous