idleness

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English idelnesse,^[2] inherited from Old English īdelnes (“vanity, frivolity, emptiness”),^[3][4][2] formed from Old English īdel + -nes,^[3][2] that is idle and -ness.^[4][5] The adjective īdel is from Proto-West Germanic *idla-, a word of unknown origin.^[4][6] There are similar formations in Old Saxon idilnusse, Old Frisian idlenisse and Old High German italnissa.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vanity, emptiness: the OED's first quotation is from the Old English Vespasian Psalter, and the phrase in idelnisse expressed what in vain now does.^[3][4] Bosworth and Toller also give "frivolity, uselessness, futility, falseness".^[7]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline, the sense of being unoccupied or doing no work appeared in late Old English;^[4] the Old English Ecclesiastical Institutes already say that Seó ýdelnes is ðære sáwle feónd, "idleness is an enemy of the soul",^[7] and the OED's first quotation for this sense is from the same text.^[3] It is now the ordinary sense.^[3] The older sense of vanity died out in the late 15th century.^[3][5] Chaucer used the word 22 times and Gower 7, both for indolence, Chaucer's use including the personified Idleness.^[8] Johnson (1755) separated the moral fault, "laziness; sloth; sluggishness", from the mere "absence of employment".^[9] Spenser, Scott and others used the variant idlesse for idleness as a pleasure,^[4] a form the OED calls pseudo-antique and records from 1596.^[3] A sense of futility or triviality, as of a groundless claim, is recorded from before 1650.^[3][2]

Timeline

• Old English – vanity, emptiness, also in the phrase in idelnisse, in vain (obsolete by 1495).^[3][4]
• Old English – the state of being unoccupied; avoidance of work.^[3][7]
• 1535 – light-headedness, folly (obsolete by 1650).^[3]
• before 1650 – groundlessness, triviality, futility.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of not working or being inactive: The strike brought weeks of idleness to the docks.^[10][3][2]
2. Laziness; avoidance of work: His teachers blamed his poor marks on idleness.^[10][3][9]
3. Lack of worth or purpose; futility: She soon saw the idleness of the argument.^[2][3]
4. Vanity, emptiness (obsolete, Old English–1495).^[3][5]

Related words

• idle
• idlesse

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press