lither

Definition

Lazy, slothful; listless.

Etymology

From Middle English lither, lyther (“deceitful; evil; false; treacherous; sinful, wicked; leading to cruelty, injustice, or wickedness, perverted; of a country: filled with wicked people; cruel, fierce; dangerous, deadly; frightening; grievous, painful; harmful, injurious; miserable, paltry, poor, worthless; feeble, sluggish; cowardly”) [and other forms], from Old English lȳþre (“bad, wicked; base, mean, wretched; corrupt”) [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *lūþrijaz (“bad; dissolute; neglected; useless”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“limp, slack”). Sense 1.2 (“flexible, supple; agile, lithe”) is influenced by lithe. Cognates Dutch lodder (“wanton person”), loddering (“drowsy; trifling; wanton”) German liederlich (“dissolute”), German lotterig (“slovenly”), lüderlich (“slovenly”) Old English loþrung (“delusion, rubbish, nonsense”), loddere (“beggar”)

Example Sentences

• "After the same manner a Monk (I mean those lither, idle, lazie Monks) doth not labour and work, as do the Peasant and Artificer: doth not ward and defend the countrey, as doth the man of warre: cureth not the sick and diseased, as the Physician doth: doth neither preach nor teach, as do the Evangelical Doctors and Schoolmasters: doth not import commodities and things necessary for the Commonwealth, as the Merchant doth: therefore is it, that by and of all men they are hooted at, hated and abhorred."
• ""It is thine own laziness, thou false English blood, that doest nothing but drink and sleep," retorted the page, "and leaves that lither lad to do the work, that he minds as little as thou.""
• "Secondarily, let him which laboureth in his vocation be prompt and active; let him be watchful and able to abide labour; he must be no lither-back, unapt, or slothful fellow. Whatsoever he doth, that let him do with faith and diligence."