This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
stridulous
torpid
fastuous
impertinent
bibulous

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(TOR-pid)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Sluggish or inactive.
2. Apathetic.
3. Dormant as when hibernating.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin torpidus (numb), from torpere (to be stiff or numb). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ster- (stiff), which also gave us starch, stare, stork, starve, cholesterol, and torpedo. Earliest documented use: 1613.

USAGE:

“Gary is a torpid man who works as a translator for the CIA in the Washington area. He’s neither shaken nor stirred.”
Ron Charles; Life of a Spy Doomed to Rot in Place; The Washington Post; Nov 19, 2014.

See more usage examples of torpid in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: