The Common Meaning of Inertia

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Franklin Reisner calling from Indianapolis.

Hello. Welcome to the show, Franklin.

How can we help?

Well, I have a question about the use of a term. The word is inertia. And my question has to do with its common language use. This has come up several times. My wife of 20 years and I are often using this term, and we use it, I guess, in opposite ways or what seems like opposite meanings. So I’d like to find out who’s using it right or are we both using it right?

-oh. Yeah. Okay, let’s hear it.

So I have a little bit of science background from years ago, and my understanding of inertia is that as a physics term, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. So the example in common language would be, say my son has a chore to do, has a task we’ve asked and it hasn’t gotten done. And I might say, you know, he just needs to get some inertia, you know, in the same ways we might say, once begun is half done. Just get started and he’ll get that task done. My wife would say he needs to overcome inertia and get started and go do his chore. So they seem to be saying the opposite things. Quite a puzzle here.

Anything on the line? We always ask this just in case. Is dinner or chores or a date night on the line here? Any kind of money changing hands?

Well, I guess bragging rights.

Bragging rights. Okay. And what does the son get out of this?

I think he’s going to get satisfaction in particular if he finds out that one of us hasn’t been using the word correctly. You specified at the top of the call that you were talking about the common definition, and it’s so important. Because in English, we often take scientific terms that are very specific, and we generalize them, and maybe even shift the meaning so far away that the scientists wouldn’t recognize it. And it’s a little bit what’s happened here.

You were right about the scientific definition, right, Martha? It’s the tendency of things to continue what they were doing unless they’re acted upon by an outside force, right?

I think that’s fair.

Yeah, so in science, if something’s moving, it will probably continue moving unless something else acts upon it. If it’s sitting still, it will probably continue to sit still unless something else on the outside acts on it right here. But in the common meaning, and this is where all the dictionaries tend to agree, only one part of that definition is stuck around. And that’s, it’s more or less makes inertia a synonym with inertness, which is you’re just sitting there like a lump. Your inertia is the tendency to stay there doing nothing and not the active sense of it, which is once you get going, you’re going to continue to go.

Although I like that. I think it’s perfectly fine. It’s just I can understand the point of confusion in your house.

Yes. So, so honestly, I suspected that was the case. So what you’re telling me is my use is not the proper common use and that my wife’s use is more the common use of the word inertia.

Yeah, hers is the more common. Vastly more common. Vastly more common. I’m sure there are people who use it as you do. But in general, when we’re not talking in a scientific way, we mean the tendency to do nothing.

Oh, boy. Okay, well, I’ll own up to that.

Yeah. Well, it’s sort of like Quantum Leap, right?

Exactly. A quantum leap is a teeny, teeny, tiny little thing, right? I mean, it’s like an electron or something, right? But when we talk about a quantum leap, we’re talking about something enormous, usually.

That’s a great example of a scientific usage, which is really far from the source and probably never going back. They will never reconcile.

Yeah, so you can use it that way with your scientist buddies, I guess. But with the rest of us. A whole language of common usage that would just, like, ruffle the feathers of scientists everywhere, right?

I suppose so. Franklin, thank you so much for calling.

Okay. I enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I’m surprised to see here. I did not realize that inert and inertia have as one of their roots, A-R-S from the Latin.

Yes. Meaning art or skill.

Yes. So it means a lack of skill or lack of art.

That’s it. Very interesting. I didn’t know that was there. I didn’t recognize the root and that E-R-T.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’ve always said overcome inertia.

Overcome inertia. Right. Which is the tendency to sit there and do nothing, right?

Yes. Which is kind of the human condition, isn’t it?

Mine before coffee, for sure.

Mine before coffee. 877-929-9673 is the number to call if you want to talk about language. Or send us your questions and stories about language to words@waywordradio.org.