tedious

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tedious, also tedyouse,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin taediōsus (“wearisome, irksome”),^{[4][3][5][6][7]} perhaps partly borrowed from Old French tedieus,^{[4][8][9][10]} which Etymonline and Klein give as the source.^[11][12] The Latin adjective is from taedium (“weariness, disgust”),^[11][4][12] which is related to taedet (“it is wearisome, it disgusts”); the whole group is of uncertain origin,^[11][7] and Lithuanian tingėti (“to be dull, listless”) has been suggested as a cognate.^[11] English borrowed taedium itself as tedium in the 17th century.^[8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Long and tiresome, wearying by its length or monotony, as a task, journey or speech: 1412–20, in Lydgate's Troy Book;^[4][2] before 1410 in Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In late Middle English the word also meant "annoying, painful, troublesome" (from about 1454, later only in dialect) and, of a person, "tired, exhausted, bored" (1430–1541).^[4][2][11] From about 1485 it also meant "slow, late", a sense Merriam-Webster labels archaic.^[4][11][6] Shakespeare used it humorously for simply "long".^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as wearisome by continuance, troublesome, irksome.^[13] In English dialects it was still used in the late 19th century, in forms such as teejus and tayjus, for a fretful or restless child and for a trying or unpleasant time.^[14]

Timeline

• 1412–20 – long and tiresome, wearisome, in Lydgate.^[4]
• 1430–40 – of a person, tired, bored (obsolete by 1541).^[4]
• c. 1454 – annoying, troublesome (now dialectal).^[4]
• c. 1485 – slow, tardy (now dialectal).^[4][11]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as wearisome by continuance.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Tiresome and boring because too long, slow or monotonous: a tedious meeting that dragged on all afternoon.^[15][6][4]
2. (archaic) Slow or dilatory.^[6][15][4]
3. (dialect) Annoying or troublesome; of a child, fretful or restless.^[4][14]

Word family

• tediously
• tediousness
• overtedious
• untedious

Related words

• tedium

References

1. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins