I've always wondered about that word. Because, if some said that about you, it would be bad, right? But, in 58 years, NO ONE has ever explained exactly what a daisical is, so how do I know if I have one? And, why is lacking one so bad?
This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night!
Just back from Toronto, btw. Joe took second place in the robot foot races. Regarding lackadaisical, would you believe that I wondered about it too?
ReplyDeleteThe word came from 17th century slang. If a person you knew spent a day doing nothing, they were "lack a day". Well, what happens if this person were lack-a-day more often then not?
Well, as it does with just about any English adjective, adding
-ical does the trick. (Now, there is a question: why does -ical always broaden the scope of the original adjective? Hmmm.)
Lack a day -> lackaday -> lackaday-ical -> Lackadaisical.