Latin

Noun

ōtium n ‎(genitive ōtiī); second declension

1. time free from activity: leisure
2. time avoiding activity: idleness, inactivity
   • 1731, Johann Jakob Brucker:

     Otium Vindelicum sive Meletematum Historico-philosophicorum Triga

     Augsburg Idleness, or, a Triga of Historico-Philosophical Essays

3. peace, quiet

Inflection

Second declension.

1. Note: Occasionally gen. s. is written oti.
   • w:Cicero:

     cum et oti ad scribendum plus ... habueris

     w:Epistulae ad Atticum, 1.

Derived terms

• negōtium
• ōtiōsus

Descendants

• Catalan: oci
• Italian: ozio
• Portuguese: ócio
• Spanish: ocio

References

• otium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• otium in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “otium”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be at leisure: otium habere
    
  • to be a lover of ease, leisure: otium sequi, amplexari
    
  • (ambiguous) to use up, make full use of one's spare time: otio abūti or otium ad suum usum transferre
    
  • to retire into private life: in otium se referre (Fam. 99)
    
  • (ambiguous) to be at leisure: in otio esse or vivere
    
  • (ambiguous) to be at leisure: otio frui
    
  • (ambiguous) to have abundance of leisure: otio abundare
    
  • (ambiguous) to use up, make full use of one's spare time: otio abūti or otium ad suum usum transferre
    
  • (ambiguous) to grow slack with inactivity, stagnate: (in) otio languere et hebescere
    
  • (ambiguous) to grow slack with inactivity, stagnate: otio diffluere
    

1. ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill
2. ↑ Giorgio Agamben, Idea of Prose, p. 81