nonentity

• non-entity

From non- +‎ entity.

nonentity (countable and uncountable, plural nonentities)

1. (countable) An unimportant or insignificant person.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 201–202:

     The Queen Mother detests, but she dreads me—my uncle is indifferent, but finds me of use—our new Queen is already a nonentity—and Louis knows that my house is the most agreeable in Paris.

   • 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise, →ISBN:

     But I am not the penniless nonentity I was when we first met; I can offer an honorable if not a brilliant marriage; and at the very lowest I can provide my wife – my widow, my relict – with a decent competence, an assured future.

   • 2000 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “Mad-Eye Moody”, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter; 4), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 179:

     Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley, it's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?

2. (uncountable) The state of not existing; nonexistence.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 201:

     New objects, new amusements, will occupy her mind; and unhappiness, equally unsuspected and unspoken, will die of its own nonentity.

   • 1984 February 4, Vincent F. Luti, “Mouths Open, Only Singing”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 5:

     Gay men have no identity. They appropriate badly that of straight men who are all fucked up in the first place over thir ^[sic] mythic masculinity stereotype. So, twice removed, the gay man flounders through life doubly fucked up dancing the dance of non-entity around the bright, burning flame of sex, power and upward mobility.

• See also Thesaurus:nonentity