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accidie

American  
[ak-si-dee] / ˈæk sɪ di /

noun

  1. acedia.


accidie British  
/ ˈæksɪdɪ /

noun

  1. spiritual sloth; apathy; indifference

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of accidie

1200–50; Middle English < Medieval Latin accīdia (alteration of Late Latin acēdia acedia ); replacing Middle English accide < Old French

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And this book about “million-dollar babies” has a lot of million-dollar words: etiolated, accidie, budgerigar.

From New York Times • Feb. 15, 2022

The doctors' diagnosis was pneumonia, but Castaneda's is accidie, a condition of numbed inertia, which he believes is the cultural disease of the West.

From Time Magazine Archive

Such was the deadly sin of accidie, the name of which is forgotten today, though the thing itself is with us still.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen

During the great war the disease of accidie was prevalent in prison camps, as any account of Ruhleben shows very clearly.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen

In the Parson's Tale Chaucer says: "Envie and ire maken bitternesse in heart, which bitternesse is mother of accidie."

From Divine Comedy, Norton's Translation, Hell by Norton, Charles Eliot

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