a. [ad. L. stolidus, related to stultus foolish, f. root *stel- to stand or cause to stand still: cf. STILL a. Cf. F. † stolide (16–17th c. in Godef.), Sp. estólido, It. stolido.
Not in Johnson, 1755 (who has stolidity), and hardly occurring before the 19th c.]
Dull and impassive; having little or no sensibility; incapable of being excited or moved. Also of actions, demeanor, expression of countenance, etc.
c. 1600. Timon, II. iv. (1842), 31. That I … should bee caste into prison by stolidde, not by solidde, persons.
1623. Cockeram, I. Stolide, foolish.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Stolid, fooling, fond, leud of condition, unadvised, dull, doltish.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xiv. Morton recognised the stolid countenance of Cuddie Headrigg.
1831. Carlyle, Sartor Res., I. iv. With some half-visible wrinkle of a bitter sardonic humour, if indeed it be not mere stolid callousness.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., II. xxix. 290. With a stolid expression of wonder, he stared for a moment.
1858. Doran, Court Fools, 29. The philosophical envoy approached the stolid Roman.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 5. The stolid opposition with which their better aspirations were met by those in authority.
1902. Mrs. Lane, in Fortn. Rev., June, 1009. How I wish I could clap a big, stolid, conservative, frost-bitten English matron into a snug American house.
Comb. 1862. Whyte-Melville, Queen’s Maries, II. 181. He was a stolid-looking fellow too.
1901. Clive Holland, Mousmé, 261. The dark consulting room with its stolid-looking oak-and-leather chairs.
Hence Stolidly adv., Stolidness.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Stolidness, Foolishness.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, I. xxx. As often as Mr. Blandois clinked glasses … Mr. Flintwinch stolidly did his part of the clinking.
1860. All Year Round, No. 73. 552. There is a superb stolidness about her; a stolidness that could be wakened into savageness.
1867. Parkman, Jesuits N. Amer., viii. (1875), 88. Often the patient was stolidly silent.
1877. E. R. Conder, Basis Faith, ii. 81. These simple primary atoms, stolidly inert when none but its own kind are present.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 37/2. Powers … of which vestries … have stolidly refused to avail themselves.
