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Lassitude vs Lethargy - What's the difference?

lassitude | lethargy |

As nouns the difference between lassitude and lethargy

is that lassitude is lethargy or lack of energy; fatigue while lethargy is a condition characterized by extreme fatigue or drowsiness, or prolonged sleep patterns.

lassitude

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Lethargy or lack of energy; fatigue.
  • Listlessness or languor.
  • Quotations

    * 1874 , (Marcus Clarke), (For the Term of His Natural Life) Chapter VII *: Rufus Dawes, though his eyelids would scarcely keep open, and a terrible lassitude almost paralysed his limbs, eagerly drank in the whispered sentence. * 1919 , *: "Then it's No, darling?" he said at last. *: She gave a gesture of lassitude . She was exhausted. *: "The studio is yours. Everything belongs to you. If you want to bring him here, how can I prevent you?" * 2004 , "Is Slacking the Only Way to Survive the Office?," The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 16 Aug, *: In order to appear busy, one should pace around the office clutching files.... The best part of this ancient ritual is that it tends to make one's colleagues look away—just in case you and your papers are going to interrupt their own lassitude . * 2004 , Rob Hughes, "Soccer: The Olympic Flame Running Low on Fuel," International Herald Tribune (Paris), 11 Aug., *: At Euro 2004 and the 2002 World Cup, Blatter commented this week, many stars were physically and mentally exhausted, and left an aftertaste of nonchalance and lassitude .''

    lethargy

    English

    Noun

  • (pathology) A condition characterized by extreme fatigue or drowsiness, or prolonged sleep patterns.
  • * c. 1599 , (William Shakespeare), King Henry IV, Part 2 :
  • This Apoplexie is (as I take it) a kind of Lethargie , a sleeping of the blood, a horson Tingling.
  • * 2003 , Amanda Ripley, "At Last, the Pill for Men", Time , 20 Oct 2003:
  • So in order to avoid unpleasant side effects like lethargy and sexual dysfunction, most recent trials also gave men testosterone supplements.
  • A state of extreme torpor or apathy, especially with lack of emotion or interest; loosely, sluggishness, laziness.
  • * Atterbury
  • Europe lay then under a deep lethargy .
  • * 1995 , Bruce W Nelan, "Crime and Punishment", Time , 20 Mar 1995:
  • Yakovlev, one of the architects of the reforms put in place by Mikhail Gorbachev, says he too is "amazed" at the government's lethargy .
  • * 2008 , Nick Fletcher, The Guardian , 9 May 2008:
  • The increase in mining stocks helped the FTSE 100 shake off some earlier lethargy and close 9.8 points higher at 6270.8, despite the disappointment of unchanged UK interest rates.