tedious

English

WOTD – 26 February 2010

Francesco Brunery's painting A Tedious Conference (c. 1900), depicting clerics suffering from tedium during a meeting

Alternative forms

• tædious (archaic)
• teedyus

Etymology

Old French tedieus, from Late Latin taediōsus, from Latin taedium (“weariness, tedium”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtiː.dɪəs/
• IPA^(key): /ˈti.di.əs/, /ˈti.dʒəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

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• Rhymes: -iːdiəs

Adjective

tedious (comparative more tedious, superlative most tedious)

1. Boring, monotonous, time-consuming, wearisome.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wearisome

   • 1782, William Cowper, “The Diverting History of John Gilpin, […]”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], published 1785, →OCLC, page 343:

     John Gilpin's ſpouse ſaid to her dear, / Though wedded we have been / Theſe twice ten tedious years, yet we / No holiday have ſeen.

   • 1891, Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Style”, in T[homas] Bailey Saunders, transl., The Art of Literature: A Series of Essays [...] Selected and Translated with a Preface (Schopenhauer Series; 4), New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co.; London: Swan Sonnenschien & Co., Lim., →OCLC, pages 24–25 and 26:

     [pages 24–25] The very fact that these commonplace authors are never more than half-conscious when they write, would be enough to account for their dulness of mind and the tedious things they produce. […] [page 26] The other kind of tediousness is only relative: a reader may find a work dull because he has no interest in the question treated of in it, and this means that his intellect is restricted. The best work may, therefore, be tedious subjectively, tedious, I mean, to this or that particular person; […]

Derived terms

• tediously
• tediousness

Related terms

• tedium

Translations

boring, monotonous

• Armenian: ձանձրալի (hy) (janjrali), տաղտկալի (hy) (taġtkali), հոգնեցուցիչ (hognecʻucʻičʻ)
• Azerbaijani: cansıxıcı, bezikdirici, usandırıcı, yorucu
• Bulgarian: скучен (bg) (skučen), еднообразен (bg) (ednoobrazen)
• Catalan: tediós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 乏味 (zh) (fáwèi)

• Czech: nudný (cs) m, otravný m, nezáživný (cs) m, vlekoucí se, fádní, suchopárný m, únavný (cs) m
• Danish: kedelig (da), trættende, triviel
• Dutch: saai (nl), langdradig (nl), monotoon (nl)
• Esperanto: teda (eo)
• Finnish: pitkäveteinen (fi), ikävä (fi), tylsä (fi), hengetön (fi)
• French: fastidieux (fr) m, laborieux (fr) m
• German: ermüdend (de), langweilig (de), langwierig (de), lästig (de), mühsam (de), nervtötend, weitschweifig (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: unalmas (hu), fárasztó (hu)
• Irish: liosta, leadránach
• Italian: noioso (it), tedioso (it), fastidioso (it), palloso (it), soporifero (it) m
• Japanese: 退屈な (ja) (たいくつな, taikutsu-na)
• Latin: taediōsus
• Maori: takeo, hongeā, hongehongeā, hokehokeā, whakahōhā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ensformig, langtekkelig (no)kjedelig (no), traurig (no)

  Nynorsk: einsformig, kjedeleg

• Occitan: tediós
• Polish: nużący (pl), nudny (pl), żmudny (pl)
• Portuguese: entediante (pt), enfadonho (pt), monótono (pt)
• Russian: ну́дный (ru) (núdnyj), ску́чный (ru) (skúčnyj), утоми́тельный (ru) (utomítelʹnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: liosta
• Spanish: tedioso (es), prolijo (es)
• Swedish: långtråkig (sv), tjatig (sv), enformig (sv)

Anagrams

• Outside, dies out, outside, side out, sudoite