indolence

American  

[in-dl-uhns] / ˈɪn dl əns /

noun

1. the quality or state of being indolent.

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Etymology

Origin of indolence

1595–1605; < Latin indolentia freedom from pain; see indolent, -ence

Explanation

If your boss catches you sleeping with your head on your desk, she's likely to comment on your indolence. Indolence is another word for laziness. The noun indolence means a habit of laziness, especially when avoiding work. In the 1600s, indolence was mostly used to mean "insensitivity to pain," from the Latin indolentia, "freedom from pain." About 100 years later, indolence came to have its current meaning, possibly because of the phrase "taking pains," which means "being careful." If you are so careful that you never leave the house, people might think of you as lazy.

Example Sentences

Indolence is no longer the fashion among aristocrats; many are out making money.

From Time Magazine Archive

Indolence was, perhaps, the only sin that stared him in the face as he lay dying, for it was the only one that he had committed with a bad conscience.

From Oscar Wilde A Critical Study by Ransome, Arthur

"Indolence and inability have too large a share in your composition ever to suffer you to be any thing more than the hero of little villainies and unfinished adventures."

From Junius Unmasked or, Thomas Paine the author of the Letters of Junius and the Declaration of Independence by Moody, Joel

I must answer again, that it was downright Indolence.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

But all will forgive him this vice, who have read his fine poem of the Castle of Indolence in Spenserian verse.

From English Lands Letters and Kings Queen Anne and the Georges by Mitchell, Donald G.