indolence

English

WOTD – 28 December 2022

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French indolence, or from its etymon Latin indolentia (“freedom from pain; insensibility”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + dolēns (“hurting, suffering; grieving, lamenting”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).^[1] Dolēns is the present participle of doleō (“to hurt, suffer; to be sorry, deplore, grieve for, lament”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɪndəl(ə)ns/, /ˈɪndl̩(ə)ns/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪndl̩əns/
Hyphenation: in‧dol‧ence

Noun

indolence (usually uncountable, plural indolences)

Habitual laziness or sloth.
Synonyms: (archaic except literary) accidie, idleness, inapplication, (obsolete) indolency, inexertion, (Philippines) noynoying, (obsolete, rare) oisivity, slothfulness, sluggishness, (obsolete) unservice

Antonyms: application, diligence, (rare) hardworkingness, industriousness, industry
- 1710 February 22 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele], “Saturday, February 11, 1709–10”, in The Tatler, number 132; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, , London stereotype edition, volume II, London: I. Walker and Co.; , 1822, →OCLC, page 287:
  After having applied my mind with more than ordinary attention to my studies, it is my usual custom to relax and unbend it in the conversation of such as are rather easy than shining companions. […] This is the particular use I make of a set of heavy honest men, with whom I have passed many hours with much indolence, though not with great pleasure. Their conversation is a kind of preparative for sleep: […]
  The spelling has been modernized.
- 1781, Edward Gibbon, “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West”, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume III, London: W Strahan; and T Cadell, , →OCLC, page 633:
  The sacred indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age; but if superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the standard of the republic.
- 1791, James Boswell, “”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. , volume I, London: Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, , →OCLC, page 14:
  He [Samuel Johnson] ſeemed to learn by intuition; for though indolence and procraſtination vvere inherent in his conſtitution, vvhenever he made an exertion he did more than any one elſe.
- 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Mansfield Park: , volume I, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 229:
  It is indolence Mr. Bertram, indeed. Indolence and love of ease—a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men Clergymen.
- 1851, Thomas Carlyle, “Coleridge”, in The Life of John Sterling, London: Chapman and Hall, , →OCLC, part I, page 78:
  To the man himself [Samuel Taylor Coleridge] Nature had given, in high measure, the seeds of a noble endowment; […] but imbedded in such weak laxity of character, in such indolences and esuriences as had made strange work with it.
- 1856, James Anthony Froude, “The Visitation of the Monasteries”, in History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, volume II, London: John W Parker and Son, , →OCLC, page 416:
  Heedless of the rights of fellows and founders' bequests, of sleepy dignities and established indolences, they re-established long-dormant lectures in the colleges.
- 1861, John Stuart Mill, “The Criterion of a Good Form of Government”, in Considerations on Representative Government, London: Parker, Son, and Bourn, , →OCLC, page 26:
  [T]here is an incessant and ever-flowing current of human affairs towards the worse, consisting of all the follies, all the vices, all the negligences, indolences, and supinenesses of mankind; which is only controlled, and kept from sweeping all before it, by the exertions which some persons constantly, and others by fits, put forth in the direction of good and worthy objects.
- 1887 March, Leonard Kip, “The Puntacooset Colony”, in The Overland Monthly: Devoted to the Development of the Country, volume IX (Second Series), number 51, San Francisco, Calif.: Commercial Publishing Company, →OCLC, chapter VII, page 254, column 1:
  There are others who have let their reputations become incrusted or blighted with indolences, or self-indulgence, or errors that are not errors unto death. These should not think to put away the tarnished name; but rather, by some new life and better efforts, to raise it from ignominy until it shows clean again.
- 1912, Stewart Edward White, “Percy Keeps Vigil”, in The Sign at Six, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 203:
  Her cheeks were glowing, and her whole figure expressed a tense vibrant life in singular contrast to the apparent indolence of the men at whom she was talking.
- 2001 September 10, Garrison Keillor, “In Praise of Laziness”, in Time‎, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-09-22:
  [N]ow, after five weeks of doing nothing, I am an authority on the subject of indolence and glad to share my views with you.
(pathology) Lack of pain in a tumour.
(obsolete) A state in which one feels no pain or is indifferent to it; a lack of any feeling.
Synonyms: (obsolete) unsensibleness, (obsolete) indolency
- 1603, Plutarch, “Of Morall Vertue”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals , London: Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 69:
  Novv, to begin vvith Fortitude, they ſay it is the meane betvveen Covvardiſe & raſh Audacitie, […] Clemencie & Mildneſſe, betvveene ſenſeleſſe Indolence and Crueltie: […]
(obsolete) A state of repose in which neither pain nor pleasure is experienced.
Synonym: (obsolete) indolency
- 1656, Tho[mas] Stanley, “[The Cyrenaick Sect. Aristippus.] Chapter IV. His Institution of a Sect.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Second Volume, volume II, London: Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring: , →OCLC, 4th part (Containing the Cyrenaick, Megarick, Eleack, Eretriack Sects), section 2 (Of the End, or Chief Good), page :
  Indolence, vvhich Epicure held, they eſteem not pleaſure, nor vvant of pleaſure, griefe, for both theſe conſiſt in motion; but Indolence and vvant of pleaſure conſiſts not in motion, for Indolence is like the ſtate of a ſleeping man.