idle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English idel,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English īdel (“empty, void; vain, useless”),^[5][6][7][4] from a West Germanic adjective that the AHD reconstructs as Proto-West Germanic *īdla-,^[4] from Proto-Germanic *īdlaz (“void, vain”).^[1][8] It is related to Old Frisian īdel (“empty, worthless”), Old Saxon īdal, Old Dutch idil, Old High German ītal (“empty, useless, vain”), Middle Dutch idel, Dutch ijdel (“vain, useless”) and German eitel (“vain; mere, pure”);^[5][6][3][9] Swedish idel and Danish idel, "mere, pure", are from Low German.^[5] Its further origin is unknown.^[5][4][6][8] The original sense was apparently "empty",^[5][10][3] and Klein rejects a link with Latin aedēs (“building, temple”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Empty, vacant, void (now obsolete), and of words and deeds, worthless or useless: Old English, both first in the Vespasian Psalter.^[5] Barnhart cites it about 725 in Beowulf,^[9] and Word Origins notes that it often appeared in the combination idle yelp, boasting.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The meaning "useless, worthless" survives in idle threats and idle words.^[6][12] Already in Old English the word was used of people not engaged in work, as in the Lindisfarne Gospels,^[5][6] and in 1297 it is first used of time without occupation.^[5] The sense "lazy" appeared about 1300 in Etymonline, in the 13th century in Ayto and Hoad;^[6][13][10] the Old English words for "lazy" had been slow and slack.^[13] From the 1520s the word was used of things not in use,^[6][5] from 1590 of what is groundless, as in Spenser,^[5] and in Elizabethan English also for "foolish, delirious" (1548–1658).^[5][6] These developments are peculiar to English: German eitel and Dutch ijdel kept the meaning "vain".^[5][13][12] Machinery that runs without doing work was idle from 1805,^[5][6] and money out of circulation from 1931.^[5] Old English had a verb īdlian, to come to nothing,^[5] but the modern verb was formed from the adjective: "to make vain" before 1460,^[9][6] "to spend time in idleness" from 1652,^[9][5] "to cause to be idle" from 1788,^[5][6] and, of an engine, to run slowly out of gear from 1916.^[5][6] The noun was first something vain or useless, as in the phrase in idle, in vain (Old English to the late 15th century),^[7] and later the idling of an engine (1939).^[6] In dialect a house standing empty is idle in Cornwall, and a barren plant in Yorkshire.^[14]

Timeline

• Old English – empty, void; worthless, useless.^[5]
• Old English – of a person, not working.^[5][6]
• 1297 – of time, unoccupied.^[5]
• c. 1300 – lazy, slothful.^[6]
• before 1460 – verb, to make vain or worthless.^[9]
• 1520s – of things, not in use.^[6]
• 1590 – groundless.^[5]
• 1652 – idle away, to pass time in idleness.^[9][5]
• 1788 – verb, to cause to be idle.^[5]
• 1805 – of machinery, running without doing work.^[5]
• 1916 – of an engine, to run out of gear.^[5][6]
• 1931 – of money, out of circulation.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Not working or busy; unemployed or unoccupied.
2. Not in use or operation: The looms stood idle all winter.
3. Avoiding work; lazy.
4. Without purpose or depth; trivial: idle gossip.
5. Having no effect; futile: an idle threat.
6. Without foundation; groundless: an idle rumour.
7. Of money, not invested to earn interest.

Verb

1. To spend time doing nothing, or to waste time: They idled the afternoon away.
2. To move slowly and aimlessly.
3. Of an engine, to run slowly while out of gear.
4. To make idle or put out of work: The strike idled three factories.

Noun

1. The state of an engine that is idling: Leave the motor at idle.

Word family

• idleness
• idly
• idler
• overidle
• unidle
• idle pulley
• idle wheel

Usage notes

Idle, indolent, lazy and slothful all describe someone who is not active.^[15] Idle means only not working, and need not be a criticism, since a person may be idle on holiday or through lack of work; the indolent are naturally disposed to avoid effort, the lazy dislike work, and slothful implies a blameworthy failure to do one's share.^[15] Idle sounds the same as idol and idyll.^[15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House