desidiosus

Forms

dēsidiōsus (feminine dēsidiōsa, neuter dēsidiōsum, comparative dēsidiōsior, superlative dēsidiōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēsidia (“idleness”) + -ōsus,^[2][1][3] and dēsidia is from dēsideō (“to sit idle”), made of dē and sedeō (“to sit”).^[1] De Vaan traces sedeō to Proto-Italic *sed-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *sed-eh₁- (“to be seated”);^[4] cognate with Ancient Greek ἕζομαι (hézomai, “to sit down”) and Old Irish saidid (“sits”).^[4] Isidore explains it as from much sitting, after a play on words in Varro.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero and Varro on.^[3] The Rhetorica uses it of an art that makes men idle.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Of persons it is idle or lazy: Varro says the men who sat in town were thought lazier than those who worked the land,^[5][6] Ovid that whoever does not wish to grow idle should love,^[5] and Pliny the Younger calls himself the laziest of men beside his uncle.^[5] Lucan uses it of a bee.^[5] Of things it is what makes idle: Cicero has enticements to idleness and the most sluggish and idle leisure.^[2][5] The comparative is found from Varro, the superlative from Cicero.^[3] Lucretius has the adverb dēsidiōsē.^[5]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium, of an art that makes men idle.^[5][3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of idle leisure.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of townsmen lazier than farmers.^[5][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of the idle man who should love.^[5][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it from sitting.^[3][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Idle, indolent, lazy.^[2][5][1]
2. Of conduct or things, marked by idleness; making idle.^[2][5]

Related words

• dēsidia
• dēsideō
• dēses
• sedeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de