sedentary
- characterized by or requiring a sitting posture: a sedentary occupation.
- accustomed to sit or rest a great deal or to take little exercise.
- Chiefly Zoology.
- abiding in one place; not migratory.
- pertaining to animals that move about little or are permanently attached to something, as a barnacle.
Origin of sedentary
Related Words
inactive, desk, idle, seated, settled, sitting, sluggish, stationary, torpid, desk-boundExamples from the Web for sedentary
Contemporary Examples
That reserve gets smaller with sedentary lifestyles, and with age.
The doctors said it was as strong as an ox, considering he was so sedentary.
Americans spend twice as much time in cars as in the 1970s and average more than 26 hours per week of sedentary entertainment.
One celebrated study found that mortality rates for swimmers were lower than for those who are sedentary, walkers, and runners.
Masters Swimmers have lower average heart rates than sedentary controls.
Historical Examples
His answer was, that he had been used to a sedentary employment.
Of meditative and sedentary habits, I enjoyed the extreme quiet.
Masterpieces of MysteryVarious
This is so, probably, because I'm a school teacher and sedentary in my habits.
I have, I confess, but indifferent skill in these sedentary arts.
The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of MadauraLucius Apuleius
His wild outbursts are the result, I think, of his sedentary life.
An Anarchist WomanHutchins Hapgood
sedentary
- characterized by or requiring a sitting positionsedentary work
- tending to sit about without taking much exercise
- (of animals) moving about very little, usually because of attachment to a rock or other surface
- (of animals) not migratory
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for sedentary
adj.
1590s, "remaining in one place," from Middle French sédentaire (16c.) and directly from Latin sedentarius "sitting, remaining in one place," from sedentem (nominative sedens), present participle of sedere "to sit; occupy an official seat, preside; sit still, remain; be fixed or settled," from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit" (cf. Sanskrit a-sadat "sat down," sidati "sits;" Old Persian hadis "abode;" Greek ezesthai "to sit," hedra "seat, chair, face of a geometric solid;" Old Irish suide "seat, sitting;" Welsh sedd "seat," eistedd "sitting;" Old Church Slavonic sežda, sedeti "to sit;" Lithuanian sedmi "to sit;" Russian sad "garden," Lithuanian soditi "to plant;" Gothic sitan, Old English sittan "to sit;" see sit). Of persons, the sense "not in the habit of exercise" is recorded from 1660s.