inertitude
English edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
inertitude (uncountable)
- (dated) Inertness; inertia.
- 1842, Charles Terry, New Zealand, its advantages and prospects, as a British colony:
- I know it was a dangerous experiment to send military amongst them in the night time, but it is equally necessary to be firm and courteous and forbearing, and if my information had been true, inertitude would have been criminal.
- 1826, John Mason Good, “Lecture IV. On the Properties of Matter, Essential and Peculiar.”, in The Book of Nature. […], volumes I (Series I. Nature of the Material World; […].), London: […] [A[ndrew] & R. Spottiswoode] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, pages 78–79:
- So, if it were possible to place an orb quietly in some particular part of space, where it would be equally free from the attractive influence of every one of the celestial systems, it would, from the same tendency to inertitude, remain quiescent and at rest for ever.
References edit
- “inertitude”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.