Faineant

Word of the Day for Monday February 21, 2005

faineant \fay-nay-AWN\, adjective:
Doing nothing or given to doing nothing; idle; lazy.

noun:
A do-nothing; an idle fellow; a sluggard.

Yet if nonhunters ever knew how many properly dressed, entirely palatable big-game carcasses wind up in dumpsters because someone was simply too faineant to butcher and cook and eat an animal he could find the time and energy to shoot and kill, hunting would be in even greater jeopardy than it is today.
--Thomas McIntyre, "The meaning of meat," Sports Afield, August 1, 1997

According to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Charles II was no faineant half-wit but a conscientious and reflective king.
--David Gilmour, "The falsity of 'true Spain,'" The Spectator, July 22, 2000

A faineant government is not the worst government that England can have. It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.
--Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn


Faineant is from French, from Middle French fait, "does" + néant, "nothing."
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Without goals, without a reason to wake, a faineant lifestyle is born.