ἀργός

ἀργός — argós

ἀργός, ἀργόν, and in later writings from Aristotle, hist. anim. 10, 40 (vol. i., p. 627{a}, 15) on and consequently also in the N. T. with the feminine ἀργῇ, which among the early Greeks Epimenides alone is said to have used, Tit 1:12; cf. Lob. ad Phryn., p. 104f; id. Paralip., p. 455ff; Winers Grammar, 68 (67) (cf. 24; Buttmann, 25 (23)) (contracted from ἀεργός which Homer uses, from alpha privative and ἔργον without work, without labor, doing nothing), inactive, idle;

a. free from labor, at leisure (ἀργόν εἶναι, Herodotus 5, 6): Mat 20:3; Mat 20:6 (Rec.); 1Ti 5:13.

b. lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform (Homer, Iliad 9, 320 ὁ, τ' ἀεργός ἀνήρ, ὁ, τέ πολλά ἐοργως): πίστις, Jas 2:20 (L T Tr WH for R G νεκρά); γαστέρες ἀργαί i. e. idle gluttons, from Epimenides, Tit 1:12 (Nicet. ann. 7, 4, 135 d. εἰς ἀργᾷς γαστερας ὀχετηγησας); ἀργός καί ἄκαρπος εἰς τί, 2Pe 1:8.

c. of things from which no profit is derived, although they can and ought to be productive; as of fields, trees, gold and silver, (cf. Grimm on Wis 14:5; (Liddell and Scott, under the word I. 2)); unprofitable, ῤῆμα ἀργόν, by litotes equivalent to pernicious (see ἄκαρπος): Mat 12:36. [SYNONYMS: ἀργός, βραδύς, νωθρός: ἀργός, idle, involving blameworthiness; βραδύς slow (tardy), having a purely temporal reference and no necessary bad sense; νωθρός sluggish, descriptive of constitutional qualities and suggestive of censure. Schmidt, chapter 49; Trench, § civ.]