Etymology

idlehood

I1D2L1E1H4O1O1D2

Today it means: The state or condition of being idle; a habit of idling; idleness. Full definition →

Middle English idelhed
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromidelhed“vanity”
  2. English todayidlehood

From idle + -hood, possibly an alteration of obsolete English idlehead (“idleness”), possibly from Middle English idelhed (“vanity”). Compare also Scots ydilheid (“idleness”), Dutch ijdelheid (“vanity, vainglory”), Middle Low German îdelheit (“idleness”), and German Eitelkeit (“vanity, conceit, vainness, idleness”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishidelhed all →

idlehead

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.