Me and a friend of mine were arguing over the exact meaning of the word "lackadaisical." I think it means more of a "dull, lack of spirit", and he believes its more "idle/lazy". I believe that lackadaisical can describe someone who is industrious, and yet dull or boring. So my question is this: Can someone lackadaisical be industrious?
Thanks for the help
Mazen
To me, somebody is being lackadaisical if they're doing whatever it is they're supposed to be doing, but not putting much effort or care into it.
Bingley
I agree with Bingley. That rules out somebody being both industrious and lackadaisical.
I've always heard and therefore pronounced it with an 's' which suggested a correlation with "lax" as in relax, but...
# of gits® per:
lackidasical = 320
lacksidasical = 395
lacksadasical = 1590
lackadasical = 548,000
Careless or, specifically, worthy of rebuke.
Like whoopsy-daisy, oopsy-daisy and upsy-daisy.
"There's a flower missing from my bouquet, but it really doesn't bother me," said Tom lackadaisically...
"I was horribly constipated for the first few days in country but the natives showed me how to make tea from a wild flower which brew quickly solved the problem," said Tom lacksadasically.
Like whoopsy-daisy, oopsy-daisy and upsy-daisy.
Aren't the first two usually used when you've made a teeny error, and the third when you lift up a small child.
Agreed:
Lackadaisical:
Lacking spirit, liveliness, or interest; languid: “There'll be no time to correct lackadaisical driving techniques after trouble develops” (William J. Hampton).
[From lackadaisy, alteration of lackaday.]
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=4&q=lackadaisicalLackaday:
interj. Archaic
Used to express regret or disapproval.
[Alteration of alack the day.]
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=4&q=lackaday
Heed not the folk who sing of say
In sonnet said or sermon chill,
"Alas, alack, and well-a-day!
This round world's but a bitter pill."
We too are sand and careful; still
We'd rather be alive than not.
~ Graham R. Tomson (pseudonym of Rosamund Marriott Watson), Ballade of the Optimist
Careless or, specifically, worthy of rebuke.
As the dictionary version and my version mean the same thing, methinks your "worthy of rebuke" is unneccessary ("careless" is, of course, accurate and indeed, but). Ain't the addition of an "s" in pronunciation (and parbably spelling <wink>) as I *do is an excellent example of just one of the ways languages breathe?
Live and let live!?
I'm not saying the exception proves a new rule, I'm sayin' if it is understood as it was intended the rebuke of spelling is quite *pointless in a word used so infrequently as well as not similar enough to another word as to create confusion through spelling or enunciation.
musick:
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. If you mean you think I meant *you* are worthy rebuke, then I apologize for not making myself clearer; I was only offering a definition. If you mean you disagree with that definition, I think it is at most only a little too strong. Or maybe I'm not getting you at all?
I read yours as a comment on the spelling/pronunciation of the version of the word which I'd always heard it as. I can now read yours as a definition (and it makes more sense)... yet taking lacksadaisical (whichever form) to mean *rebukable is a new one to me.
>>I read yours as a comment on the spelling/pronunciation of the version of the word which I'd always heard it as.<<
Whew! Glad we cleared that up!
>>yet taking lacksadaisical (whichever form) to mean *rebukable is a new one to me.<<
In a way, I agree. I wouldn't have given that definition if I hadn't already followed the trail at dic.com. In terms of origins, that definition seemed apt, and the reason I offered it was that I wasn't satisfied with the notion that one could be both industrious and careless at the same time. One can, of course, not be industrious and also not be deserving of rebuke -- at least, I hope so; but the contexts in which lackadaisical is most often used, in my experience, is one in which someone is supposed to be doing something and doing it carelessly. I exclude such circumstances where point-of-view is of paramount importance, such as work slowdowns, or resistance to unethical orders and the like.