英和和英

別の表記

• sleuth (obsolete except for a group of bears)
• sloath, slowth (obsolete)

語源

From 中期英語 slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from 古期英語 slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow +‎ -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /sləʊθ/, /slɒθ/
• (General American) IPA: /slɔθ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA: /slɑθ/
• (New Zealand) IPA: /slɒθ/
• 韻: -əʊθ, -ɒθ

名詞

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)

1. (uncountable) Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.

   Antonyms: diligence, liveliness

   Synonyms: acedia, slothfulness

   Hot summer days inspire a sense of sloth in me.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, 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, lines 787–792:

     Who having ſpilt much blood, and don much waſte / Subduing Nations, and achievd thereby / Fame in the World, high titles, and rich prey, / Shall change thir courſe to pleaſure, eaſe, and ſloth, / Surfet, and luſt, till wantonneſs and pride / Raiſe out of friendſhip hoſtil deeds in Peace.

   • 1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac:

     Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.

   • 1953 April, “Arrears of Station Maintenance”, in Railway Magazine, page 217:

     Mr. Elliot's frank statement that "sloth and untidiness are indefensible" is a sign that the task will be tackled with vigour.

2. (countable) Any animal in the suborder Folivora.
   1. (especially) Any member of species of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae of herbivorous, arboreal South American mammals, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
   2. (paleontology) Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.
3. (collective, rare, countable) A group of bears.

   Synonym: sleuth

   • 1919, Francis Rolt-Wheeler, The Boy with the U.S. Trappers‎, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, page 266:

     "Thirteen!" interrupted Gavan in surprise. "Isn't that a large number for a sloth of bears?" "It certainly is," the hunter answered, "six is as many as I ever saw together. Maybe the tracks looked like a lot more. That happens.

   • 2014, Stacey Marinaro, The First Unicorn‎, Lulu.com, page 12:

     One day there was a sloth of grizzly bears trying to catch salmon fish from the river

   • 1879, Thomas Tindall Wildridge, The misereres of Beverley minster: a complete series of drawings; with notes on the plates and subject‎, J Plaxton, page 23:

     Man (head broken off) on horseback, leading three (technically a sloth) muzzled bears by square-linked chain.

使用する際の注意点

• Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.

同意語

• (animal): tardigrade (obsolete)

下位語

• (animal): two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, Australian sloth, ground sloth, pale-throated sloth

派生語

関連する語

• slowth

動詞

sloth (third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed)

1. (obsolete, intransitive, transitive) To be idle; to idle (away time).

   He has been slothing this whole weekend.

   • 1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven‎, London: Francis Smith, page 69:

     […] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid‎, London: T. Passinger, page 2:

     That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.

Further reading

• “sloth”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “sloth”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

アナグラム

• Holts, Loths, holts, loths