Word of the Day

: August 11, 2010

stolid

adjective STAH-lid

What It Means

: having or expressing little or no sensibility : unemotional

stolid in Context

The judge was a man of stolid temperament who did not let the impassioned rhetoric of litigants affect his decisions.

Did You Know?

"Stolid" derives from "stolidus," a word that means "dull" or "stupid" in Latin. It is also distantly related to the word "stultify," meaning "to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical." The earliest examples of usage for "stolid," dating back to the 17th century, indicate that it too was originally associated with a lack of smarts; it was used to describe people who were considered dull or stupid because they didn't wear their emotions on their sleeves. By the1800s, however, "stolid" was frequently appearing without the connotation of foolishness, and it continues to be free of such overtones today.