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.