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Monday: Accidie
Sep. 21st, 2026 06:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiaccidie [ˈæksɪdɪ]
noun
spiritual sloth; apathy; indifference
examples
1. He could perhaps have made friends with the more solid elements--the gentleman-farmers inland, the plantation owners on the coast, the professional men, the politicians--but that would mean regaining some serious purpose in life which his sloth, his spiritual accidie, prevented and cutting down on the bottle, which he was definitely unwilling to do. Octopussy, Ian Fleming.
2. The meridian demon was upon him; he was possessed by that bored and hopeless post-prandial melancholy which the coenobites of old knew and feared under the name of "accidie." Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley
origin
From acedia, which comes from a combination of the negative prefix a- and the Greek noun kēdos, meaning "care, concern, or grief." (The Greek word akēdeia became acedia in Late Latin, and that spelling was retained in English.) Acedia initially referred specifically to the "deadly sin" of sloth. It first appeared in print in English in 1607 describing ceremonies which could induce this sin in ministers and pastors, but that sense is now rare. Acedia now tends to be used more generally to simply imply a lack of interest or caring, although it sometimes still carries overtones of laziness.
noun
spiritual sloth; apathy; indifference
examples
1. He could perhaps have made friends with the more solid elements--the gentleman-farmers inland, the plantation owners on the coast, the professional men, the politicians--but that would mean regaining some serious purpose in life which his sloth, his spiritual accidie, prevented and cutting down on the bottle, which he was definitely unwilling to do. Octopussy, Ian Fleming.
2. The meridian demon was upon him; he was possessed by that bored and hopeless post-prandial melancholy which the coenobites of old knew and feared under the name of "accidie." Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley
origin
From acedia, which comes from a combination of the negative prefix a- and the Greek noun kēdos, meaning "care, concern, or grief." (The Greek word akēdeia became acedia in Late Latin, and that spelling was retained in English.) Acedia initially referred specifically to the "deadly sin" of sloth. It first appeared in print in English in 1607 describing ceremonies which could induce this sin in ministers and pastors, but that sense is now rare. Acedia now tends to be used more generally to simply imply a lack of interest or caring, although it sometimes still carries overtones of laziness.
