What is the Latin word for idle?

The usual Latin words for “idle” are piger, socors, sēgnis; also iners, dēses, cāsus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“idle” in Latin

pigerbackward, slow, dull, lazy, indolent, sluggish, unwilling, motionless, inactive, inert; unwilling, reluctant, averse socorsfoolish, silly; sluggish, inert, inactive, dull (lacking in vitality or alertness); taking no interest in sēgnisslow, tardy, torpid, inactive, unenergetic, lazy inerswithout skill, unskilled, unskillful, incompetent, crude; inactive, lazy, idle, indolent, sluggish, inert; worthless; st dēsesidle cāsusa fall, downwards movement; accident, chance; an event, happening, occurrence vānusvain, empty, vacant, void; unsubstantial; groundless, baseless, meaningless, pointless, worthless, ineffectual, mindless inānisempty, void, hollow; vain; purposeless, meaningless, worthless, useless, fruitless, empty, idle irritusinvalid, void, null and void; ineffective, useless, irrelevant supervacāneusabove what is necessary, unnecessary, needless, superfluous, redundant

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

idle

(1) (1) Lazy, etc. ignavus: piger: socors: segnis: iners: deses. [SYN. under IDLENESS.] Idle in doing anything, piger ad aliquid faciendum: idle at anything, piger ad aliquid. (2) Unoccupied, otiosus: vacuus labore or negotiis: vacuus, deses. [SYN. in UNOCCUPIED.] Idle time, otium: tempus otii: tempus labore (poetically, laboris) or negotiis vacuum: tempus vacuum [Vid: LEISURE]. To be idle, ignavum, etc., esse; laboris fugientem esse: otiosum esse: otium habere: otium est alicui (free from calls of business): vacuum esse (negotiis): vacare (to have nothing to do): cessare: nihil agere (to be doing nothing): feriari: ferias agere (to be taking a holiday): to be too idle to do anything, pigrari aliquid facere (Cic.): to be very idle, inertissimae esse segnitiae: to become idle, socordiae se atque ignaviae tradere: languori se desidiaeque tradere: don’t be too idle to send me all the news, quidquid novi scribere ne pigrere (Cic.). Scipio used to say that he was never less idle than when he had nothing to do, Scipio dicere solitus est, se numquam minus otiosum esse, quam cum esset otiosus. Money that lies idle, pecunia otiosa: money lies idle, pecunia otiosa jacet: to let one’s money lie idle, pecuniam non occupare: to be an idle spectator of anything, se praebere otiosum spectatorem alicujus rei: to live an idle life, otiose vivere: vitam in otio degere (a life without occupation of business): vitam desidem degere (a life of actual laziness): to sit idle, compressis, ut aiunt, manibus sedere (Liv.): to sit at home idle, domi desidem sedere.

Vain, empty, cassus (e.g., vota: formido): vanus (e.g., ictus, inceptum): inanis (e.g., verba: cogitatio: contentiones): irritus (preces: labor, inceptum) [SYN. in USELESS]: supervacaneus (superfluous). To utter idle words, voces inanes fundere; mittere irritas voces (i. e., ineffectual).

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for idle?: The usual Latin words for “idle” are piger, socors, sēgnis; also iners, dēses, cāsus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.