inofficious

English

Etymology

From Latin inofficiōsus. Compare French inofficieux. See in- (“not”) +‎ officious.

Adjective

inofficious (comparative more inofficious, superlative most inofficious)

1. (obsolete) Indifferent to obligation or duty.
   • 1604 March 25 (first performance; Gregorian calendar; published 1604), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Part of the Kings Entertainment in Passing to His Coronation [The Coronation Triumph]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, page 850:

     Vp thou tame River, wake; / And from the liquid limbes this ſlumber ſhake: / Thou drownſ't thy ſelfe in inofficious ſleepe; / And theſe thy ſluggish waters ſeeme to creepe, / Rather than flow.

2. (obsolete) Not officious; not civil or attentive.
3. (obsolete, law) Contrary to one's natural obligation or duty, as of a testament by which a child is unjustly deprived of inheritance.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     the inofficious testament

   • 1785, William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy:

     an inofficious disposition of his fortune

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “inofficious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)