inertia
nounAU, UK /ɪnˈɜː.ʃə/ · US /ɪnˈɝ.ʃə/
Etymology 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.
1
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics The property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
2
Figuratively In a person, unwillingness to take action.
- Men […] have immense irresolution and inertia.1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter II, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book IV (Terror):
- Not all the surviving veteran chiefs would actually fight. Some remained nominally in the resistance but in practice delayed at their bases, pretexting a lack of ammunition for their uncertain inertia.1970 August 12 [1969 January 15], John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 261:
1 more example
- City had been woeful, their anger at their own inertia summed up when Samir Nasri received a booking for dissent, and they did not have a shot on target until the 66th minute.2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian:
3
Medicine, Sciences Lack of activity; sluggishness; said especially of the uterus, when, in labour, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.
- Synonyms
- idleness, laziness, sloth, slothfulness
- Derived terms
- bureaucratic inertia, center of inertia, centre of inertia, entreprenertia, inertial, inertialess, inertia selling, inertia time, inertia welding, microinertia, moment of inertia, practico-inertia, uterine inertia