Forms: 4 litergi, litargi, -y, lytargye, 4–6 litargie, li-, lytarge, (7 lytargie), 5–6 letargie, -ye, 6 letarge, letharge, 6–7 lethargie, (6 lithargie, lethergie), 6– lethargy. [a. L. lēthargia (med.L. litargīa, after med.Gr. pronunciation), a. Gr. ληθαργία, f. λήθαργος forgetful, a derivative or compound of ληθ-, λανθάνειν to escape notice, λανθάνεσθαι to forget. Cf. F. léthargie (OF. litargie), Pr. litargia, Sp. letargia, Pg. lethargia, It. letargia.
The ME. forms in -arge may represent L. lēthargus, Gr. λήθαργος; the adj. was used subst. as a name for the disease.]
1. Path. A disorder characterized by morbid drowsiness or prolonged and unnatural sleep.
Negro lethargy, a disorder peculiar to the negroes of the west coast of Africa, characterized by attacks of somnolence, and ending fatally in most instances in three to twelve months (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1888).
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 674 (730). What slomberyst þou as in lytargye.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. iii. (Tollem. MS.). Floures þerof [of almonds] sode in oyle awakeþ hem þat haueþ þe litargy, the slepynge euel.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 310. And þis cauterie is good for sijknes þat ben in þe partie bihinde of a mannes brayn as for þe litarge.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., I. xxvi. My daisit heid fordullit disselie, I raisit vp half in ane litargie.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. Wks. 1144/1. Regarding nothing, thinking almost of nothing, no more then if they laye in a letarge.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 227. Stroake it on the temples for the Lytargie.
1593. R. Harvey, Philad., 26. At last a lethargy made an end of him.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 54. The Lethargie must haue his quyet course: If not, he foames at mouth.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 367. A Lethargy is a lighter sort of Apoplexy.
1833. Cycl. Pract. Med., I. 445/1. By lethargy is meant a torpor both mental and corporeal, with deep quiet sleep…. This is the slightest form of coma.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lxvi. He soon fell into a lethargy.
2. A condition of torpor, inertness or apathy.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 372. Well myȝte we seuer þat slepe of litergi þat is fallen upon vs.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 87. We (surprised with a lethargy of sinne) do nothing but laugh and iest in the midst of our sleepie security.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 132. Cosin, Cosin, how haue you come so earely by this Lethargie?
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XIV. xcii. Had not hate in scottish hearts bread Lethargie of feare.
1642. in Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VI. § 196. It was a strange fatal Lethargy which had seized Our good People, and kept them from discerning, that [etc.].
1672. Dryden, 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada, Def. Epil. 174. Falling … into a carelessness, and (as I may call it) a Lethargy of thought.
1702. Pope, Sappho, 128. No tear had pow’r to flow, Fix’d in a stupid lethargy of woe.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxix. 148. Men, roused from that lethargy in which they had so long slept.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. That gentleman had gradually passed through the various stages which precede the lethargy produced by dinner.
1842. Tennyson, St. Sim. Styl., 101. Oft I fall, Maybe for months, in such blind lethargies, That Heaven, and Earth, and Time are choked.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xxi. 356. Desperate at the lethargy of their commander, the aristocracy tried to force him into movement.
transf. 1869. Phillips, Vesuv., v. 152. The expiring stages or intermittent lethargy of a volcano.
† 3. A lethargic or sleepy person. Obs.
1634. Shirley, Example, I. i. Dormant, why Dormant, thou eternall sleeper! Who would be troubled with these lethargies about him? Dormant, are you come Dreamer.
