Idleness is the state of doing nothing at all. Forced idleness, the idleness of a wet week.
It is a fault when chosen and a misery when imposed, which is why the same word covers both. Idleness of a machine costs money whether anybody is at fault or not.
1nounidlenessThe state of doing nothing at all.
“Six months of enforced idleness did him more harm than the injury.”
idleness is a state.
Also accepted in games: inactivity
Old English idelnes comes from idel, empty or worthless.
Proto-West Germanic
*īdlanassī
Old English
īdelnes
Middle English
ydelnesse
English, today
idleness
From Middle English ydelnesse, from Old English īdelnes, from Proto-West Germanic īdlanassī, equivalent to idle + ness. Cognate with Old Frisian īdelnisse (“idelness”), obsolete Dutch ijdelnis, Old Saxon īdalnussi (“idleness, vanity”), Old High German ītalnissa (“idleness, vanity, emptiness”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA