Word of the Day

: July 10, 2013

lackadaisical

adjective lak-uh-DAY-zih-kul

What It Means

: lacking life, spirit, or zest : languid

lackadaisical in Context

Feeling particularly lackadaisical in the summer heat, we lounged on the front porch drinking lemonade.

"Malone will be tasked with reeling in a team of players who favor one-on-one basketball and often played lackadaisical defense." - From an article by Jason Jones in the Sacramento Bee, May 31, 2013

Did You Know?

Alas, alack, there are times when life seems to be one unfortunate occurrence after another. We’ve all had days when nothing seemed to go right. When folks had one of those days back in the 17th century, they'd cry "Lackaday" to express their sorrow and disappointment. "Lackaday" was a shortened form of the expression "alack the day." In the mid-1700s, "lackadaisical" was coined through addition of the suffix "-ical." The word "lackadaisy" also was used around that time as an interjection similar to "lackaday," and this word, though never as prevalent as "lackaday," might have influenced the coinage of "lackadaisical."