different between listless vs supine

English

Etymology

From Middle English lystles, equivalent to list (“desire”) +? -less. Compare Dutch lusteloos (“lethargic, listless”). Doublet of lustless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?stl?s/

Adjective

listless (comparative more listless, superlative most listless)

1. Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, ch. 18:

     I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless.

   • 1861, Charlotte M. Yonge, The Stokesley Secret, ch. 6:

     What an entirely different set of beings were those Stokesley children in lesson-time. . . . Poor, listless, stolid, deplorable logs, with bowed backs and crossed ankles, pipy voices and heavy eyes!

   • 1901, William Somerset Maugham, The Hero, ch. 21:

     The scene with Mrs. Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.

   • 2005 Nov. 29, Aryn Baker, "John Hardy: Bali Guy," Time:

     “Listless, inattentive, distracted,” he recited. “A daydreamer. Tries his best, but is too slow.”

Derived terms

• listlessly
• listlessness

Translations

Anagrams

• slitless

English

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin sup?nus (“lying down with the face upwards, supine; careless, heedless, thoughtless, negligent, indolent; (grammar) supine”), from *sup- (see sub (“under”)) + -?nus (“of, pertaining to”). The word is cognate with Catalan supí, Italian supino (“on one's back, supine”), Old French sovin, Middle French souvin, Anglo-Norman supin, Old Occitan sobin, sopin, Portuguese supino (“on one's back, supine”), Spanish supino (“on one's back, supine”).

The noun is from Late Middle English supin (“supine of a Latin verb”) or Middle French supin (“(grammar) supine”), from Latin sup?num, (ellipsis of sup?num verbum (“supine verb”)), from sup?nus; further etymology above.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s(j)u?pa?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?su?pa?n/, /?su?pa?n/
• Hyphenation: sup?ine

Adjective

supine (comparative more supine, superlative most supine)

1. Lying on its back.

   Synonym: reclined

   Antonyms: prone, prostrate
2. (figuratively) Reluctant to take action due to indifference or moral weakness; apathetic or passive towards something.

   Synonyms: passive, peaceful, lazy, lethargic, listless
3. (rare, now poetic) Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping.

   Synonyms: inclined, sloping

Antonyms

• nonsupine
• prone

Derived terms

Related terms

• resupine

Translations

Noun

supine (plural supines)

1. (grammar, also attributively) In Latin and other languages: a type of verbal noun used in the ablative and accusative cases, which shares the same stem as the passive participle.
2. (grammar, also attributively) In Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic and Old Norse: a verb form that combines with an inflection of ha/hafa/hava to form the present perfect and pluperfect tenses.
3. (grammar, also attributively) (obsolete terminology) The 'to'-prefixed infinitive in English or other Germanic languages, so named because the infinitive was regarded as a verbal noun and the 'to'-prefixed form of it was seen as the dative form of the verbal noun; the full infinitive.

Derived terms

• supine tense

Translations

See also

• gerund
• infinitive

References

Further reading

• supine position on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• supine (grammar) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• supine (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• puisne, punies

Italian

Adjective

supine

1. feminine plural of supino

Latin

Adjective

sup?ne

1. vocative masculine singular of sup?nus

References

• supine in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• supine in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette