restless

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English restles,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English restlēas (“restless, disturbed”),^[5][2][6][7] formed from Old English rest + -lēas,^[8][9][3] the ancestors of rest and -less.^[8][4] The noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *rasto-.^[3] The OED compares West Frisian restleas, Dutch rusteloos and German rastlos, as well as Danish rastløs and Swedish rastlös, the last two probably formed after the German adjective.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deprived of rest, disturbed: in the Old English Rule of St Benet,^[8][5] before the 12th century by Merriam-Webster's dating.^[4] Etymonline glosses the Old English adjective as deprived of sleep.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense concerned a person who could get no rest, and in Middle English it also meant uneasy in mind or spirit.^[2][8] Chaucer has the word four times, for restless and for unceasing.^[10] Middle English then applied it to conditions and things: unceasing from about 1425, in a manuscript of Chaucer's Fortune,^[8] and constantly in motion from before 1439, in Lydgate.^[8] The sense of a person or animal always stirring, or averse to being settled, is recorded from before 1513, in Dunbar;^[8] Etymonline has the late 15th century.^[3] In 1557 the Songes & Sonettes of Surrey and others has it for what affords no rest, for a mind in search of stimulation, and for impatience to do something.^[8] Johnson (1755) gave being without sleep first, then unquiet.^[11] As an adverb equal to restlessly, it was used from about 1400 to 1891.^[8]

Timeline

• before the 12th century – deprived of rest, disturbed.^[4][8][5]
• c. 1400 – adverb, restlessly (obsolete by 1891).^[8]
• c. 1425 – of a condition, unceasing.^[8]
• before 1439 – of a thing, constantly in motion.^[8]
• before 1513 – of a person or animal, constantly stirring; fidgety.^[8]
• 1557 – affording no rest; of the mind, constantly active; impatient to do something.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unable to rest, relax or keep still; fidgety: A restless toddler wriggled through the sermon.^[12][4][9]
2. Giving no rest or sleep: three restless nights in a rented room.^[12][4][8]
3. Wanting change or action; discontented with being settled: a restless young traveller.^[12][4][8]
4. Constantly in motion or operation: the restless tide.^[4][8][9]
5. (rare) Continuing without end; unceasing.^[4][8][9]

Word family

• restlessly
• restlessness

Related words

• rest
• -less
• unrest

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt