English
otiosity
Otiosity comes from Latin otiositas ‘leisure, idleness’, from otiosus ‘idle’, and ultimately from ōtium ‘leisure’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōtium1‘leisure’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiosus2‘idle’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiositas2‘leisure, idleness’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600ociosité2
- Englishearliest quotation 1908otiosity2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin otiosus
- 2 Wiktionary, English otiosity
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1908, Charles Francis Horne, The Technique of the Novel: “There is no doubt that the ordinary reader would…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōtiumWiktionary, Latin otiosus‘leisure’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiosusWiktionary, English otiosity‘idle’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEotiositasWiktionary, English otiosity‘leisure, idleness’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600ociositéWiktionary, English otiosity
- Englishearliest quotation 1908otiosityWiktionary, English otiosity. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “otiosity”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin otiosus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin ōtium / otiosity