different between lassitude vs inertia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French lassitude, from Latin lassit?d? (“faintness, weariness”), from lassus (“faint, weary”), perhaps for *ladtus, and thus akin to English late.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?læs??tju?d/

Noun

lassitude (countable and uncountable, plural lassitudes)

1. Lethargy or lack of energy; fatigue.
2. Listlessness or languor.

Quotations

• 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Chapter VII

  Rufus Dawes, though his eyelids would scarcely keep open, and a terrible lassitude almost paralysed his limbs, eagerly drank in the whispered sentence.

• 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 25

  "Then it's No, darling?" he said at last.

  She gave a gesture of lassitude. She was exhausted.

  "The studio is yours. Everything belongs to you. If you want to bring him here, how can I prevent you?"

• 2004, "Is Slacking the Only Way to Survive the Office?," The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 16 Aug,

  In order to appear busy, one should pace around the office clutching files.... The best part of this ancient ritual is that it tends to make one's colleagues look away—just in case you and your papers are going to interrupt their own lassitude.

• 2004, Rob Hughes, "Soccer: The Olympic Flame Running Low on Fuel," International Herald Tribune (Paris), 11 Aug.,

  At Euro 2004 and the 2002 World Cup, Blatter commented this week, many stars were physically and mentally exhausted, and left an aftertaste of nonchalance and lassitude.

Translations

Further reading

• lassitude in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• lassitude in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• lassitude at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Etymology

From Latin lassit?d? (“faintness, weariness”), from lassus (“faint, weary”).

Noun

lassitude f (plural lassitudes)

1. lassitude

Further reading

• “lassitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• dualistes

English

Etymology

From Latin inertia (“lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence”), from iners (“unskilled, inactive”), from in- (“without, not”) + ars (“skill, art”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?n??.??/, /??n?.??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)??

Noun

inertia (countable and uncountable, plural inertias or inertiae or inertiæ)

1. (physics, uncountable or countable) The property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
2. (figuratively) In a person, unwillingness to take action.

   • Men […] have immense irresolution and inertia.

   • 2014, Jacob Steinberg, "Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals", The Guardian, 9 March 2014:

     City had been woeful, their anger at their own inertia summed up when Samir Nasri received a booking for dissent, and they did not have a shot on target until the 66th minute.

3. (medicine) Lack of activity; sluggishness; said especially of the uterus, when, in labour, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.

Synonyms

• (unwillingness to take action): idleness, laziness, sloth, slothfulness

Derived terms

• inertial
• inertia welding
• moment of inertia

Related terms

• inert
• inertness

Translations

Further reading

• inertia in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• inertia in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• inertia at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• iranite

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?inerti?/, [?ine?r?t?i?]
• Rhymes: -i?
• Syllabification: i?ner?ti?a

Noun

inertia

1. inertia

   Synonyms: hitaus, vitka, jatkavuus

Declension

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *enartj?. Related to iners (“without skill; inactive”), from in- (“not”) + ars (“art, skill”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /i?ner.ti.a/, [??n?rt?iä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /i?ner.t?si.a/, [i?n?rt??s?i?]

Noun

inertia f (genitive inertiae); first declension

1. want of art or skill, unskillfulness, ignorance
2. (by extension) inactivity, idleness, laziness, indolence

Declension

First-declension noun.

Related terms

• iners
• inersit?d?
• inerticulus

Descendants

References

• inertia in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• inertia in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• inertia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• inertia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

inertia m (definite singular inertiaen, indefinite plural inertiaer, definite plural inertiaene)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by inerti