indolence

From Middle French indolence, from Latin indolentia

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪndələns/

indolence (usually uncountable, plural indolences)

1. Habitual laziness or sloth.
   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224, page 229:

     It is indolence Mr. Bertram, indeed. Indolence and love of ease—a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men Clergymen.

   • 1912, Stewart Edward White, chapter 19, in The Sign at Six:

     [H]er whole figure expressed a tense vibrant life in singular contrast to the apparent indolence of the men at whom she was talking.

   • 2001 September 10, Garrison Keillor, “In praise of laziness”, in Time:

     [N]ow, after five weeks of doing nothing, I am an authority on the subject of indolence and glad to share my views with you.

• indolency

Borrowed from Latin indolentia.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃dɔlɑ̃s/

indolence f (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) insensibility, lack of pain
2. laziness, indolence

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