Image by WikiImages from Pixabay 
Image by Michael Mosimann from Pixabay
Sloths have become enormously popular in recent times. Cute, fluffy sloths adorn pyjamas, tee shirts, and accessories. Plush sloth toys adorn bedrooms and living rooms of kids of all ages. In this era of COVID-19, I even have a face mask with sloths on it.
Native to the rainforests of Central America and South America, they are fascinating animals. Although not conventionally attractive, we still tend to think of them as “cute”. They appear to smile all the time, and they appear to have a more relaxed attitude to life than most other animals with which we are familiar. When life is stressful and busy, being a sloth for a little while might be an attractive option.
These animals were first called sloths in the early 1600s. It came from a translation of the Portuguese word preguiça which meant “slowness” or “slothfulness”. This, in turn, originated in the Latin word pigritia which meant “laziness”.
Sloth is a Middle English word that evolved from an Old English word that meant “laziness” or “indolence”. The sense of meaning that relates to moving slowly or being late dates to the middle of the 14th century. The King James Bible of the early 17th century uses the word sloth as one of the seven deadly sins, being the sin of laziness .
The animal, then, took its name from the behaviour rather than the other way round.
Sources:
Etymonline
Macquarie Dictionary
Sloth.
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