English
otiosity
Otiosity comes from Latin otiositas ‘leisure, idleness’, from otiosus ‘idle’, and ultimately from ōtium ‘leisure’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōtium‘leisure’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiosus‘idle’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiositas‘leisure, idleness’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600ociosité
- Englishearliest quotation 1908otiosity
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōtium‘leisure’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiosus‘idle’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiositas‘leisure, idleness’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600ociosité
- Englishearliest quotation 1908otiosity
Earliest quotation: 1908, Charles Francis Horne, The Technique of the Novel: “There is no doubt that the ordinary reader would…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew ‘off, away from’
through Latin ōtium ‘leisure’
Today it means
noun The state or quality of being otiose.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ōtium / otiosity