different between torpor vs sloth

English

Alternative forms

• torpour

Etymology

From Latin torpor (“numbness”), from torpe? (“I am numb”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??p?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?t??p?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)p?(?)

Noun

torpor (countable and uncountable, plural torpors)

1. A state of being inactive or stuporous.
2. A state of apathy or lethargy.

   Synonyms: lethargy, sluggishness, languor, torpidity
3. (biology) A state similar to hibernation characterised by energy-conserving, very deep sleep.

   Coordinate terms: hibernation, aestivation, cold sleep, hypersleep, suspended animation

Derived terms

• torporific

Related terms

• torpidity
• torpid
• torpidness
• torpedo

Translations

Latin

Etymology

From torpe? +? -or.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?tor.por/, [?t??rp?r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?tor.por/, [?t??rp?r]

Noun

torpor m (genitive torp?ris); third declension

1. numbness, stupefaction
2. sluggishness, listlessness, inactivity

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• ? English: torpor
• ? French: torpeur
• ? Italian: torpore
• ? Portuguese: torpor
• ? Spanish: torpor

References

• torpor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• torpor in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• torpor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Portuguese

Noun

torpor m (plural torpores)

1. torpor (state of being inactive or stuporous)

English

Alternative forms

• sloath, slowth (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English sl?wþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþ? (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow +? -th. Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sl???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sl??/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /sl??/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /sl??/
• Rhymes: -???, -??

Noun

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)

1. (uncountable) Laziness; slowness in the mindset; disinclination to action or labour.
   • 1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac

     Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.

2. (countable) A herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
3. (rare) A collective term for a group of bears.

Usage notes

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.

Synonyms

• (animal): tardigrade

Hyponyms

• (animal): two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth

Derived terms

Related terms

• slowth

Translations

Verb

sloth (third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed)

1. (obsolete, intransitive, transitive) To be idle; to idle (away time).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

   • 1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven, London: Francis Smith, p. 69,^[1]

     […] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 2,^[2]

     That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Loths, holts, loths