indolence

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun inactivity resulting from a dislike of work

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French indolence, or from its etymon Latin indolentia (“freedom from pain; insensibility”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + dolēns (“hurting, suffering; grieving, lamenting”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Dolēns is the present participle of doleō (“to hurt, suffer; to be sorry, deplore, grieve for, lament”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

laziness

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