shortsightedness
3
7.2
- noun
- /ˈʃɔrtˌsaɪtɪdnəs/
:
cortoplacismo
- We cannot expect the schools to overcome by themselves our society's tendencies toward shortsightedness, nor can we continue to blame such scapegoats as bad home life as the sole contributors to our schools' shortcomings.
Examples
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Many companies suffer from shortsightedness when they prioritize quarterly profits over long-term growth strategies.
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The government's shortsightedness in cutting funding for infrastructure projects will lead to bigger problems in the future.
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Many of the problems in the world are due to shortsightedness.
Blog text (19) -
What is the problem with the shortsightedness of a world that separates itself?
Fiction book (2000) -
People like you are going to destroy those things with hubris and shortsightedness.
Blog text (34) -
Much of the fault, they believe, lies with America itself, notably the shortsightedness of American business and the inadequacy of American government policies.
Academic text (1992) -
Cutting budgets for education is an act of mind-boggling shortsightedness.
Academic text (2015) -
Significantly, this shortsightedness was not lost on those Endeavorers whose emphasis was heavily on education for the next generation.
Academic text (1990) -
Due to their shortsightedness, the farmers failed to implement sustainable practices that could have benefited the land long-term.
Synonyms
1
7.5
A narrow way of thinking that ignores long-term effects
A lack of planning ahead, especially with money or resources
Antonyms
How Foresighted
Surface Forms
Morphology
shortsightedness = shortsighted (semi-transparent) = short + sight + ed + ness
The noun is formed from the adjective 'shortsighted' by '-ness'; the sense is a metaphorical extension from visual limitation to lack of foresight, so learners may not derive the precise figurative meaning from components alone.
Etymology
Shortsightedness comes from the words short and sight, where short means 'not far' and sight means 'ability to see'. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine someone who can only see close things, so they do not 'see' the future, which is why shortsightedness means a lack of planning or long-term thinking.