accidie

noun

ac·​cid·​ie ˈak-sə-dē 

: an emotional state characterized especially by feelings of weariness, apathy, or restlessness : acedia

At a deeper level, it is our own accidie—which the playwright Arthur Miller described as periods of stupefying spiritual and psychological stasis—that is under scrutiny …

—Stephen Brown

But another great enemy of the truth is just the opposite of conviction: indifference. The Roman Catholic Church, which, like Nietzsche, knows something about conviction, has a name for this apathy: acedia (or accidie), which is laziness of spirit, idleness of soul.

—Ralph Estling

Examples of accidie in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Side effects may include irritability, agitation, nausea, palpitations, tremor, and accidie. — John E. McIntyre, baltimoresun.com, 12 May 2018

Word History

Etymology

Middle English accidie, accyde, borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Medieval Latin accidia, alteration of Late Latin acēdia — more at acedia

Note: The forms with [i] in the medial syllable, apparently attested in the early Middle Ages (in the 8th-century Second Corpus Glossary of Old English), appear to show influence of Byzantine or earlier pronunciation of Greek (in which eta and iota merge), but it also has been suggested that the word has been assimilated to Latin accidere (see accident); however, the semantic grounds for such assimilation are unclear.

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above