quiescent

qui•es•cent (kwee-ES-uhnt, kwahy-)  adj

Definition:
1. marked by inactivity or repose
2. causing no trouble or symptoms
quiescence, quiescency noun; quiescently adverb; quiesce verb


Origin:
1605; from L. quiescens, prp. of quiescere, from quies "rest, quiet", from PIE base *qwi- "rest"; quiescence is from 1630s; quiesce is used in English from 1828

Related:
Synonyms: inactive, dormant, fallow, idle, immobile, inert, inoperative, motionless, passive, quiet, still, calm, placid, reposeful, reposing, restful, tranquil, undisturbed
Related Words: quiet, acquiesce, requiem

Sentence Examples:
• He acknowledged that Virginia was "not as ready as South Carolina;" but declared that "The first drop of blood spilled on the soil of South Carolina would bring Virginia, and every Southern State, with them."  He thought "it was perhaps better that Virginia, and all other border States, remain quiescent for a time, to serve as a guard against the North.  By remaining in the Union for a time, she would not only prevent coercive legislation in Congress, but any attempt for our subjugation." - The Great Conspiracy,  John Alexander Logan

• Where so many living creatures are to ply their respective powers, in pursuing the end for which they were intended, we are not to look for nature in a quiescent state; matter itself must be in motion, and the scenes of life a continued or repeated series of agitations and events. - Theory of the Earth, James Hutton

• I now strove to be entirely care-free and quiescent; and my conscience justified me in the attempt; though indeed it was not so successful as I could have wished. - Bartleby, The Scrivener, Herman Melville

Sources: Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

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

torpor

tor•por (TAWR-per)  n

Definition:
1. sluggish inactivity or inertia
2. lethargic indifference; apathy
3. a state of suspended physical powers and activities
4. dormancy, as of a hibernating animal

torporific adjective

Origin:
c.1600;  from L. torpor "numbness," from torpere "be numb," from PIE base *ster- "stiff"

Related:
Synonyms: lethargy, apathy, disinterest, dormancy, drowsiness, dullness, idleness, impassivity, inaction, inactivity, languor, laziness, lifelessness, listlessness, passiveness, sleepiness, sloth, slowness, sluggishness, slumber, stupor, torpidity, torpidness
Related Words: torpedo, torpid

Sentence Examples:
• At length the announcement of tea and coffee in the cedar parlor roused all hands from this temporary torpor. Every one awoke marvellously renovated, and while sipping the refreshing beverage out of the Baronet's old-fashioned hereditary china, began to think of departing for their several homes. -Tales of a Traveller, Washington Irving

• I understand that this torpor is quite common with men and women suddenly bereaved.  I believe that a whole week passed before my brain recovered any really vital motion; and then such feeble thought as I could exert was wholly occupied with the desperate stupidity of the whole affair.  -Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts, A. T. Quiller-Couch

• The anguish, the torpor, the toil
  Will have passed to other millions
  Consumed by the same desires.
  Ages will come and go,
  Darkness will blot the lights
  And the tower will be laid on the earth.
-Rivers to the Sea, Sara Teasdale

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

oscitant

os•ci•tant (OS-i-tuhnt)  adj

Definition:
1. being inattentive or absentminded; dull, lazy, or negligent
2. yawning; gaping
3. being drowsy or dozy

oscitancy, oscitance noun; oscitantly adverb

Origin:
1615–25; from L. oscitans, prp. of oscitare "to gape, yawn," from os citare "to move the mouth"

Related:
Synonyms:  drowsy, dull, insensible, languorous,  lethargic, nodding, sluggish,  hebetudinous;
(nouns) lentor, statuvolence, pandiculation, segnitude, segnity, somnolence, stupor, torpescence, torpidity, torpor

Related Words: citation (from O.Fr. citation, from L. citationem (nom. citatio) "a command," noun of action from pp. stem of citare "to summon, to put in motion, to call forward")
incite (from M.Fr. enciter (14c.), from L. incitare "to put into rapid motion, urge, encourage, stimulate," from in- "on" + citare "move, excite")
recite (from L. recitare "read aloud, repeat from memory," from re- "back, again"  + citare "to summon")


Sentence Examples:
• If men so uncultivated possessed any vestiges of christianity, being totally unfit for the genuine wisdom and goodness of that divine system, they must have received it with the grossest corruptions which it had acquired from interested imposture, oscitant negligence, or torpid stupidity. -The history of England, David Hume,1810

• The sanguine genius of Commerce differed with Rome, whose course,when unobservant of military armor and martial scenes, became oscitant and drowsy. -Hunt's merchants' magazine and commercial review, 1852

• Let not our minds waver and hover, in reference hereunto, as if this were a doubtful matter, as if possibly, it might he otherwise, as if either he were ignorant or oscitant, and unconcerned about the affairs of his creature, as if any thing might possibly fall out without his advertency. -The posthumous works of John Howe, ed. by J. Hunt, 1832

The Storyline
Finally off the phone and finding a second of quietude, Anna slumped into her chair and let out a wide yawn, staring oscitantly into space before rousing herself and heading off to get dressed for the day.

Why This Word:
Sated by turkey and tryptophan, stuffing and sugar, we can be excused if today we are bit oscitant.

Sources: Websters Online, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hebetudinous

heb•e•tud•in•ous (heb-i-tood-n-uhs) / he-bə-ˌtüd-ə-nəs/   adj

Definition 
1. dull or lethargic, especially relating to the mind

hebetude noun

Related
Synonyms: lethargic, languorous, listless, debilitated, dilatory, dull, enervated, laggard, languid, languorous
Related Words: hebetate (to dull)

Examples
•“But somehow trouble always finds you,” Miss Devlin retorted, angry, but not sure why. “I've always suspected men like you wear guns in a futile effort to disguise your hebetudinous natures. The word "hebetudinous" rolled off Miss Devlin's tongue with the all the ostentation of the wise preaching to the foolish. It wouldn't be the first time she called a man stupid to his face with a word he couldn't understand. 
• The audience waits in a kind of hebetudinous fixation, perhaps astonished at the perfectly sustained level of mediocrity.
• Some of their proposals are sufficiently platitudinous — and hebetudinous — to convey antidote with their bane. Others, however, cannot thus be dismissed.

The Storyline
Just as suddenly as the hullabaloo arose, a now decidedly hebetudinous Kurt began mumbling Anna's name through the door.

Origin
1620s, from L. hebetudo, noun of quality from hebes “blunt, dull.”

Sources: Wordsmith, Online Etymology

Why This Word:
Hebetudinous isn't so rare that you can be certain that you'll never stumble upon it. And when you do, you wouldn't want to seem... hebetudinous. As one of the quotes aver, hebetudinous has a pretentious quality about it in use, which frankly is part of its appeal. But getting past that, it lies in the space mapped out by the intersection of dullness and lethargy and that starts to paint the picture. Who among has not encountered a hebetudinous youth whose mental dullness seems to stem more from a lack of motivation than ability? And now you can point that out to them without fear of them being able to take offense.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day