Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Lethargy
/ˈlɛθərdʒi/noun
A heavy sluggishness in which nothing feels worth the effort.
The Greek roots
λήθη
lḗthē
forgetfulness
ἀργός
argós
idle, not working
Literally: “forgetful idleness”
The story of the word
Greek physicians used λήθαργος for a specific feverish stupor in which the patient drifts off and forgets. Lethe is the river the dead drink from in order to forget, and ἀλήθεια, truth, is literally the not-forgotten. The second half, ἀργός, is a squeezed form of ἀ-εργός, not working, and William Ramsay used it in 1894 to name argon, the gas that refuses to react.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
Letheargonenergyalethic
In a sentence
A week of grey weather and the whole office slid into lethargy.