Paraphernalia

I was not in top form yesterday and found it hard to get on with things at work. I felt like the wilted flower on the left, no amount of coffee bucked me up.

The term that best describes this is :

lack·a·dai·si·cal   

Some people use lackadaisical as a synonym for “lazy,” but that’s not quite what the word means. Lazy implies the deliberate avoidance of work in order to spare oneself effort. Lackadaisical implies lack of purpose. The lazy person has a purpose. The lackadaisical person is content to let things happen.

The adjective lackadaisical derives ultimately from the word lack in the Middle English sense of “loss, failure, reproach, shame.” When people were overcome by the sadness, unfairness, or futility of life, they would put the back of their hands to their foreheads and exclaim “Ah, lack!” Then “Ah, lack” became the word alack. Then came the expression “Alack the day!”

On a day, alack the day!

Love, whose month was ever May,


Spied a blossom passing fair,


Playing in the wanton air…

Shakespeare, “Love’s Perjuries”

“Alack the day” contracted to the interjection lackaday.

Lack-a-day became lack-a-daisy:

The whimsical adjective lackadaisical derives from the exclamation lackadaisy.