Inertia is the refusal of matter to change how it is moving. Overcome inertia, the inertia of it, institutional inertia.
In physics it is Newton's first law: a body keeps doing what it is doing unless a force acts, and mass is the measure of how strongly it resists. Figuratively it means resistance to change in organisations and in people — institutional inertia is why nothing happens. Note that the Latin means lack of skill or idleness, from iners.
1nouninertiaThe refusal of matter to change how it is moving.
“When the bus stopped suddenly, inertia threw the standing passengers forward.”
2nounresistanceResistance to change in people or organisations.
“Years of inertia at the council meant the broken playground was never repaired.”
inertia is a resistance to change.
Latin inertia means idleness, from iners, unskilled — in- plus ars, skill. Kepler gave it the physical sense, and Newton fixed it in his first law.
Latin
inertia — lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence
English, today
inertia
Built from
From Latin inertia (“lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence”), from iners (“unskilled, inactive”), from in- (“without, not”) + ars (“skill, art”). Something close to the modern physics sense was first used in New Latin - by Johannes Kepler.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA