WWWW!
(Word for Word's Word of the Week)
Pronunciation: o-tee-os
Adjective meaning: 1. Lazy, indolent. 2.
Useless, of no use, ineffective, unfruitful, futile.
The adverb is otiosely and the noun otiosity.
Etymology: This week's word comes from
the Latin otiosus "having leisure or ease, not busy" based on
otium "leisure". We do not know the origin of this word, but
we find it in an odd place: negotiate. This word comes from negotiatus,
the past participle of negotiari "conduct business", which comes
from a noun, negotium "business". Apparently, the idea was that
business was "non-leisure", for negotium is made up of the neg-
in negative and negate + otium.
Thought: A couple of weeks after the Christmas/New Year
hols and what an excellent word to start the year. It sums up the general
"atmosphere" of many workplaces until things start to kick back
in again.
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