sedentary

comparative more sedentary · superlative most sedentary

1. Not moving; relatively still; staying in the vicinity.

   The oyster is a sedentary mollusk; the barnacles are sedentary crustaceans.

   Synonyms: immobile

2. anthropologyOf a human population, living in a fixed geographical location.

   .

   Synonyms: settled, non-migratory · Antonyms: nomadic

3. medicineOf a job, lifestyle, etc., not moving much; sitting around; inactive.

   […]the Egyptians; whose Sages were not sedentary, scholastic Sophists, like the Grecian[…]

   1765 [1738], Bishop William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated, page 220

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   […]that any education that confined itself to sedentary pursuits was essentially imperfect, that the body as well as the mind should be cultivated[…]

   1844 October 3, Benjamin Disraeli, The Acquirement of Knowledge, An address delivered to the members of the Manchester Athenæum

   There is, however, a gap between the athletic games that were played by large groups of men and the sedentary games that are confined to a few players, which I find it difficult to bridge.

   1952, H[arold] J[ames] R[uthven] Murray, “The Distribution and Origin of Board-Games”, in A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, Oxford, Oxfordshire: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 233

   Synonyms: chairborne, sitsome

4. obsoleteInactive; motionless; sluggish; tranquil.

   Such restless revolution day by day Repeated, while the sedentary earth That better might with far less compass move[…]

   1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

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   The Soul, considered abstractedly from its Passions, is of a remiss and sedentary Nature, slow in its Resolves, and languishing in its Executions.

   1711 December 22, Joseph Addison, “No. 255”, in The Spectator

   Synonyms: abeyant

5. obsoleteCaused by long sitting.

   till length of years And sedentary numbness craze my limbs To a contemptible old age obscure.

   1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, lines 569-571

plural sedentaries

1. A sedentary person.

   Smiths are not nomadic among the nomads and sedentary among the sedentaries, nor half-nomadic among the nomads, half-sedentary among sedentaries.

   2012, Deleuze, The Dark Precursor: Dialectic, Structure, Being, page 37

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   Endosomatic electrodermal activity (skin potential level and skin potential response) as an indirect indicator of sympathetic nervous system activity was measured in 35 sedentary male students and 22 trained athletes of two groups during resting and after an acute exercise. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference of skin potential parameters between sedentaries and trained athletes before and after the acute exercise in bicycle ergometer.

   1998, Effect of acute exercise on skin potential in sedentaries and trained athletes.

   The non-sedentaries rather do not without grain or rice, but the sedentaries have, in Wirth's table, not much less sheep and goats than the non-sedentaries. That is a reason to suppose that the sedentaries can cope without the non-sedentaries

   2001, Jaarbericht, Issues 35-38, page 99

   With the decline and eventual downfall of the south, it was their relationship with the Arab sedentaries of the north which assumed greater importance;

   2005, The Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 1, Volume 2, page 19

   "These baths are great both for active people like sportsmen, as well as for sedentaries who spend too much time behind their desks," explains Dicioni Lino

   2015, Road to Beauty Day 8: Hairstyling Tips on the Road