weighty

Alternative forms

• weightie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English weighti, weghti, wighti, equivalent to weight +‎ -y.

Cognate with Scots weichty, wechty, wichty, Saterland Frisian wichtich, West Frisian wichtich, Dutch wichtig, gewichtig, German wichtig, Danish vigtig, Swedish viktig.

Compare typologically Russian ве́ский (véskij), весо́мый (vesómyj) (< вес (ves)). Also compare the same meaning development from cognate (by borrowing) Polish waga (< ... < Proto-Germanic *wēgō): ważny (whence Russian ва́жный (vážnyj)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈweɪti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪti

Adjective

weighty (comparative weightier, superlative weightiest)

1. Having a lot of weight; heavy.
   • 1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Confiding Peasant and the Maladroit Bear:

     And so a weighty rock she aimed / With much enthusiasm

   • 2018, Thom Nickels, Philadelphia Mansions: Stories and Characters behind the Walls:

     To fund the purchase, he had to sell a late Renoir, The Judgment of Paris, with its depiction of weighty ladies frolicking in a roseate garden.

2. (figurative) Important; serious; not trivial or petty.

   Synonyms: grave, solemn; see also Thesaurus:serious

   a weighty argument

   • 1853, Solomon Northup, chapter IX, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, →OCLC, page 130:

     But I have now reached a point in the progress of my narrative, when it becomes necessary to turn away from these light descriptions, to the more grave and weighty matter of the second battle with Master Tibeats, and the flight through the great Pacoudrie Swamp.

3. Rigorous; severe; afflictive.