ἀργός, 
-όν, 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 
ἀργή, which among the early Greeks 
Epimenides alone is said to have used, 
Titus 1:12; cf. 
Lob. ad Phryn., p. 104f; id. Paralip., p. 455ff; Winers Grammar, 68 (67) [cf. 24; Buttmann, 25 (23)], (contracted from 
ἄεργος which Homer uses, from 
α privative and 
ἔργον without work, without labor, doing nothing), 
inactive, idle;
a. free from labor, at leisure (
ἀργὸν εἶναι, Herodotus 5, 6): 
Matthew 20:3, 
6 [
Rec.]; 
1 Timothy 5:13.
b. lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform, (Homer, Iliad 9, 320 
ὅ, τ’ ἀεργὸς ἀνήρ, 
ὅ, 
τε πολλὰ ἐοργώς): 
πίστις, 
James 2:20 (L T Tr WH for R G 
νεκρά); 
γαστέρες ἀργαί i. e. idle gluttons, from 
Epimenides, 
Titus 1:12 (
Nicet. ann. 7, 4, 135 d. 
εἰς ἀργὰς γαστέρας ὀχετηγήσας); 
ἀργὸς καὶ ἄκαρπος εἴς τι, 
2 Peter 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): 
Matthew 12:36.
    [Synonyms: ἀργός, βραδύς, νωθρός: ἀργ. idle, involving blame-worthiness; βρ. slow (tardy), having a purely temporal reference and no necessary bad sense; νωθρ. sluggish, descriptive of constitutional qualities and suggestive of censure. Schmidt ch. 49; Trench § 104]
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