otiose

o•ti•ose (OH-shee-ohs, OH-tee-) adj

Definition:
1. producing no useful result, futile
2. being at leisure, idle, lazy, indolent
3. lacking use or effect, superfluous



otioseness, otiosity noun; otiosely adverb


Origin:
1794; from L. otiosus "having leisure or ease, not busy" (cf. Fr. oiseux, Sp. ocioso, It. otioso), from otium "leisure," of unknown origin, meaning "at leisure, idle" is recorded from 1850

Related:
Synonyms: listless, slothful, futile, hopeless, ineffective, useless, futile, hollow, idle, inactive, indolent, ineffective, laggard, lazy, slothful, sterile, superfluous, surplus
Related Words: negotiation, from neg- "not" + otium "ease, leisure"

Sentence Examples:
• The hall was constructed in the manner of a Roman atrium, and from the oblong pool of turgid water in the centre a troop of fat and otiose rats fled weakly squealing at my approach. - Prince Zaleski, M.P. Shiel

• The otiose, the facile, surplusage: why are these abhorrent to the true literary artist, except because, in literary as in all other arts, structure is all important, felt or painfully missed, everywhere?--that architectural conception of work, which foresees the end in the beginning, and never loses sight of it, and in every part is conscious of all the rest, till the last sentence does but, with undiminished vigour, unfold and justify the first--a condition of literary art, which, in contradistinction to another quality of the artist himself, to be spoken of later, I shall call the necessity of mind in style. - How to Fail in Literature, Andrew Lang

• It remains only to be said, by way of conclusion to this brief survey, that, for those who are disposed to open their sensibilities to the appeal of this music, its high and haunting beauty must exert an increasing sway over the heart and the imagination. It is making no excessive or invidious claim for it to assert that, after one has truly savored its quality, other music, transcendent though it may demonstrably be, seems a little coarse-fibred, a little otiose, a little—as Jules Laforgue might have said—quotidienne. - Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Lawrence Gilman


Sources: Merriam-Webster, Dictioanry.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

nugatory

nu•ga•tor•y (NOO-guh-tohr-ee)  adj

Definition:
1. of no real value; trifling; worthless
2. of no force or effect; ineffective; futile; vain
3. not valid
(often following "render")

Related:
Synonyms: inoperative, invalid, nonbinding, nonvalid, null, void, trivial, insignificant, frivolous, useless
Related Words: nugacity, nugacious, nugae

Sentence Examples:
• "The Statesman who, knowing his instrument to be ready, and seeing War inevitable, hesitates to strike first is guilty of a crime against his country."
It is because this sequence of cause and effect is absolutely unknown to our Members of Parliament, elected by popular representation, that all our efforts to ensure a lasting peace by securing efficiency with economy in our National Defences have been rendered nugatory. -On War, Carl von Clausewitz, 1874

• All entirely bad works of art may be divided into those which, professing to be imaginative, bear no stamp of imagination, and are therefore false, and those which, professing to be representative of matter, miss of the representation and are therefore nugatory. -Modern Painters, John Ruskin

• In it form is not used as an object of emotion, but as a means of suggesting emotions. This alone suffices to make it nugatory; it is worse than nugatory because the emotion it suggests is false. -Art, Clive Bell

The Storyline
And any attempt to interject would be rendered nugatory...

Origin:
1603; from L. nugatorius "worthless, futile," from nugator (gen. nugatoris) "jester, trifler," from nugatus, pp. of nugari "to trifle," from nugæ (gen. nugarum) "jokes, jests, trifles," of unknown origin

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Why This Word:
Closely related nugacious means nearly the same as nugatory: trivial, unimportant or insignificant. But it doesn't carry the sense of being rendered invalid, moving from potential force to ineffectiveness. Nugatory has a meaning in a legal context: a statute which is unconstitutional is a nugatory law.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day