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languid

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Etymology and origin of the English word languid

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlæŋɡwɪd/[1]
  • US: /ˈleɪ̯ŋɡwɪd/, /ˈlɛ̃ŋɡwɪd/[1]

languid1 weak, listless

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1595 B. Barnes, Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets
Borrowed from
Middle French languide
Ultimate origin
Latin languō
Etymology tree of languid1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin langueō
Latin languidus
English languid
From the same root · languid1
Latin languēscō ← langueō
Latin languor ← langueō
Latin languidē ← languidus

Etymology

The adjective meaning weak or listless is borrowed from Middle French languide (“weak, fatigued; indifferent, apathetic”),[2][3][4][5] or directly borrowed from Latin languidus (“faint, weary, drooping, sluggish”),[2][3][4] formed with the suffix -idus[2] from languō (“to be weak or faint”).[2][3][6][7] The OED records the French adjective from 1523, and compares Italian languido, Spanish lánguido and Portuguese lânguido.[2] Etymonline, following Watkins, and the American Heritage Dictionary take the Latin verb from Proto-Indo-European *sleg- (“to be slack, languid”),[3][6] and Klein connects it with laxus (“wide, loose”) and slack.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person: weak, faint or lacking vigour, especially from illness or tiredness: 1595, in Barnes's Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets,[2] and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged have 1597.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

From bodily weakness the word spread to the mind and manner, for a person showing only faint interest or spirit (1622), and then to things that lack force: slow movement (1646), a dull colour (1663) and flat writing (before 1677).[2][9] Johnson (1755) listed "faint; weak; feeble" first.[10] From 1727 it could describe a natural or affected reluctance to exert oneself, and so an unhurried bearing.[2] Sluggish trade was languid from 1728 and a restful period of time from 1732.[2] The OED notes that several of these senses have no French parallel until much later.[2]

Timeline

  • 1595 – of a person, weak, faint, lacking vigour.[2]
  • 1622 – spiritless, showing faint interest.[2]
  • 1646 – of a thing, slow-moving, lacking force.[2]
  • 1663 – of a colour, faint, dull.[2]
  • before 1677 – of style or an idea, lifeless, insipid.[2]
  • 1727 – leisurely, unhurried in movement or bearing.[2]
  • 1728 – of business, sluggish.[2]
  • 1732 – of a period of time, relaxed and idle.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Lacking energy or vigour, as from tiredness or illness; weak or drooping: She felt languid after the long fever.[7][5][2]
  2. Showing little interest or spirit; listless or apathetic.[7][5][2]
  3. Leisurely and unhurried, sometimes with an affected reluctance to make an effort.[2]
  4. Slow-moving or lacking force; of a colour, faint.[2][9]
  5. Of style or an idea, lacking force or interest; insipid.[2][9]
  6. Of trade or another activity, sluggish and inactive.[2][9][7]
  7. Of a period of time, relaxed and idle.[2]

Word family

  • languidly
  • languidness
  • unlanguid

languid2 part of an organ pipe

Confidence
Established
First attested
1688 R. Holme, The Academy of Armory
Ultimate origin
English languet

Etymology

The part of an organ pipe is named by an alteration from English languet,[2][9][5] after words ending in -id.[2] The variant language shows the influence of language, perhaps helped by the collocation with the pipe's mouth.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A shoelace, the only sense in Holme's Academy of Armory (1688).[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The organ-building sense is a separate 19th-century record, first in an 1852 translation of Seidel's book on the organ, and is the only one that survives.[2][9]

Timeline

  • 1688 – a shoelace (obsolete).[2]
  • 1852 – a flat metal plate in an organ flue pipe.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A flat metal plate fixed above the foot of an organ flue pipe, opposite the mouth.[2][5][9]
  2. (obsolete, 1688) A shoelace.[2][9]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Languid.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/languid. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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