inertia, ae, f. id., want of art or skill, unskilfulness, ignorance. Lit. (rare but class.): animi (spectantur), quemadmodum affecti sint, virtutibus, vitiis; artibus, inertiis, Cic. Part. 10, 35; Petr. 135, 6.

— Transf., in gen., inactivity, idleness, laziness (very freq.): inertia atque torpedo, Cato ap. Gell. 11, 2, 6: id largiamur inertiae nostrae, Cic. de Or. 1, 15, 68: castigare segnitiem hominum atque inertiam, id. ib. 1, 41, 185: laboris, aversion to labor, id. Rosc. Com. 8, 24: operis, Liv. 33, 45, 7 al.

— In an oxymoron: strenua, Hor. Ep. 1, 11, 28; cf. inquieta, Sen. Tranq. 12, 2.