laziness

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English lazy

Proto-Germanic *-in-

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-Germanic *-inōną

Proto-Indo-European *-dyé-der.

Proto-Germanic *-atjaną

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Proto-Germanic *-þuz

Proto-Germanic *-assuz

Proto-Germanic *-inassuz

Proto-West Germanic *-nassī

Old English -nes

Middle English -nesse

English -ness

English laziness

From lazy + -ness.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪ.zi.nəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

laziness (countable and uncountable, plural lazinesses)

1. The quality of being lazy
   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 85:

     “It is thine own laziness, thou false English blood, that doest nothing but drink and sleep,” retorted the page, “and leaves that lither lad to do the work, that he minds as little as thou.”

   • 2016 March 11, Jennifer Coates, “I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out.”, in Medium‎^[1], archived from the original on 8 August 2026:

     Generalizing harshly and broadly but implying “you know which ones I mean” is an intellectual and rhetorical laziness that is not allowed to pass anywhere else in these communities.

Translations

quality of being lazy

• Arabic: كَسَل m (kasal)

  Egyptian Arabic: كسل m (kasal)

• Armenian: ծուլություն (hy) (culutʻyun)
• Aromanian: leani f
• Assamese: এলাহ (elah)
• Bashkir: ялҡаулыҡ (yalqawlıq)
• Belarusian: лянота f (ljanóta), гультайства (hulʹtajstva)
• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: kahugakan (bcl)

• Bulgarian: мързел (bg) m (mărzel), безделие (bg) n (bezdelie)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: peresa (ca) f, mandra (ca) f, accídia (ca) f
• Cebuano: tapol, katapol
• Chichewa: ulesi
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 惰性 (zh) (duòxìng), 懒惰 (zh) (lǎnduò)

• Chukchi: ӄытԓиӄыԓ (qytḷiqyḷ)
• Czech: lenost (cs) f
• Danish: dovenskab (da) c
• Dutch: luiheid (nl) f
• Estonian: laiskus
• Ewe: kuviawɔwɔ
• Faroese: leti f
• Finnish: laiskuus (fi)
• French: paresse (fr) f, flemme (fr) f
• Galician: galloufa f, nugalla (gl) f, taina f, cuxota f, mandría f, apaxo m, doquería f, larchaneiría f, lacazaneiría f
• Georgian: სიზარმაცე (sizarmace)
• German: Faulheit (de) f, Trägheit (de) f, Müßiggang (de) m
• Greek: τεμπελιά (el) f (tempeliá)
• Gujarati: આળસ f or n (āḷsa)
• Haitian Creole: parès
• Hebrew: עצלות f (atslút)
• Hindi: आलस (hi) m (ālas)
• Hungarian: lustaság (hu)
• Icelandic: leti f
• Ilocano: sadut
• Indonesian: kemalasan (id)
• Irish: drogall m
• Italian: pigrizia (it) f
• Japanese: 無精 (ja) (ぶしょう, bushō)
• Khmer: ការខ្ជិល (kaakhcɨl)
• Korean: 게으름 (ko) (geeureum), 귀차니즘 (gwichanijeum) (neologism)
• Latin: pigritia f
• Macedonian: мрза f (mrza)
• Mansi:

  Northern Mansi: ^{(please verify)} сав (sav)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: latskap m, dovenskap m

• Māori: māngeretanga
• Navajo: iłhóyééʼ
• Old English: slǣwþ f
• Pangasinan: ngiras
• Polish: lenistwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: preguiça (pt) f
• Quechua: qilla
• Romanian: lene (ro)
• Russian: лень (ru) f (lenʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: leisg f
• Slovak: lenivosť f
• Southern Altai: јалку (ǰalku)
• Spanish: pereza (es) f, desidia (es) f, fiaca (es) f (Argentina), fiacón m (extreme, Argentina), flojera (es) f, desgana (es) f, holgazanería (es) f, acidia (es) f, galbana (es) f (colloquial), vagancia (es) f, flojeritis f (festive), indolencia (es) f, haraganería f, boludencia f, vaguería (es) f, pigricia f
• Swahili: uzembe (sw)
• Swedish: lättja (sv) c, lathet (sv) c
• Tagalog: katamaran, kamaymayan
• Telugu: సోమరితనము (te) (sōmaritanamu)
• Thai: ความขี้เกียจ (th)
• Tocharian B: ālasäññe
• Turkish: tembellik (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: تنبللك (tembellik), هایلازلق (haylazlık), كسل (kesel)

• Ukrainian: лінощі (linošči), лінь (linʹ)
• Umbundu: epepe
• Vietnamese: sự lười biếng
• Welsh: diogi m