I'm excited!

We've reached the word assiduous, one of my favorites! 

It means hardworking, diligent, attentive, persistent, studious, ind___rious ("eager and hardworking for a long time"), sed___us (" constant and steady and careful"), or inde_____able ("never fatiguing while constantly working").

In other words, an assiduous worker is focused and on task: in an etymological sense, always sitting.

At the heart of assiduous is the Latin sedere, "to sit." So, assiduous is cousins with other words that have to do with sitting, like sedate, séance, session, siege, sediment, possess, preside, reside, subside, obsess (literally "sitting to" something), sed__tary ("involving sitting down for a long time instead of getting movement or exercise"), ___sident (literally "sitting apart" but meaning "a person who formally disagrees with ideas put in place by those in charge"), and __sid__us ("sneaky in a way that suggests sitting in a hiding spot while waiting to attack").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)   

We've used the word "assiduous" for centuries in English. It has Latin bits that literally mean "sitting by (something all the time)." (The prefix as- means "by or to," and the base sedere means "to sit.")

Imagine sitting by your laptop constantly, working on your novel. Or sitting by your plants constantly, tending them. Or sitting by a sick loved one constantly, taking good care of them.

In each case, you're being assiduous: hardworking, diligent, effortful, sticking with the work constantly and doing it to the best of your ability.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "He's an assiduous reader;" "I love these students; they're all so assiduous."

Other forms: 

The adverb is "assiduously:" "They're working assiduously."

For a noun, you can use "assiduousness" or, my preference: "assiduity." (Pronounce "assiduity" as "ass uh DYOO uh tee.")

how to use it:

"Assiduous" is the formal, positive, wonderfully specific word you need when you want to describe someone who's always working hard and paying attention to all the details, as if constantly sitting with the task—rather than getting restless, taking breaks, or slacking off.

You might talk about assiduous people, like an assiduous student, worker, reader, writer, historian, or researcher.

Or you might talk about the assiduous things people do or create, like assiduous notes, records, citations, research, processes, routines, studying, or bookkeeping.

Or you might say that someone is assiduous about or in something: "He's assiduous about taking notes." "She's assiduous in her reporting."

examples:

"In his final years, the old man had kept assiduous track of Bibi's illness in hopes of determining some logic to her condition."
 — Jhumpa Lahiri, "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar," Interpreter of Maladies, 1999

"[Rafael Nadal] has always been a modest superstar, avoiding public displays of entitlement with the same assiduity that he arranges the beverage bottles on court in front of his chair."
   — Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 11 June 2017

has this page helped you understand "assiduous"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "assiduous" without saying "diligent" or "always working hard."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone), with their assiduous attention to (something), (accomplished something)."

Example 1: "Chloe, with her assiduous attention to her long fur, kept it soft and free from matting."

Example 2: "The Borrowers, with their assiduous attention to thrift and recycling, were ahead of their time. You have to admire any community so committed to reducing its carbon footprint."
   — Alfred Hickling, The Guardian, 12 December 2012

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "That's Not a Thing, That's Two Things."

I describe it; you name it! For example, if I give you "It's that thing where Steve Harvey hosts two groups competing as vassals in medieval Europe," then you give me "Family Feudalism." To see the answer, scroll to the bottom.

Try this today:

It's that thing where the camera casually pans to a package of cute rainbow ursine gelatin treats in Act I, so you just know that by Act IV, someone's going to eat them.

review this word:

1. The opposite of ASSIDUOUS could be

A. STUPID or IGNORANT.
B. RESISTANT or NARROW-MINDED.
C. DISTRACTIBLE or PROCRASTINATING.

2. Certain foods demand assiduity, like _____.

A. indulgently splurging on a top-shelf bottle of olive oil to make pasta
B. patiently waiting for the ground meats to chill in the refrigerator to make pâté
C. diligently squeezing out every last drop of moisture from curds to make cheese

Answers to the review questions: 1. C 2. C From the game: That's Chekhov's Gummy Bears.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.