“The word “sloth” comes from the Middle English term slouthe, meaning slow. The animal’s common name was not used until 500 years later.”
National Geographic Kids, 5,000 Awesome Facts, Fact #6
Sloth is: “from the Middle English word slouthe or slewthe, meaning “laziness”, which comes from the Old English word slǣwþ meaning sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, or torpor.”
It originated in the 12th century as a translation of the Latin word acedia. Acedia was defined as sluggishness and without care. It replaced the Old English word slouthe but kept it’s meaning.
500 years later, in 1749 Georges Buffon, a French Naturalist then defined the sloth as an animal;
“Slowness, habitual pain, and stupidity are the results of this strange and bungled conformation. These sloths are the lowest form of existence. One more defect would have made their lives impossible.”
Sloths are the only animal where their name is derived from one of the seven deadly sins from the Bible.
According to the late Jesuit Fr. John Hardon defined sloth as “sluggishness of soul or boredom because of the exertion necessary for the performance of a good work. The good work may be a corporal task, such as walking; or a mental exercise, such as writing; or a spiritual duty, such as prayer.”
Now, in the Websters Collegiate Dictionary, the word sloth means, and not as bad as the other definitions as “disinclination to action or labor; INDOLENCE.. Any of several slow-moving arboreal edentate mammals that inhabit tropical forests of So and Central America, hang from the branches back downward, and feed on leaves, shoots and fruits.”
Sloths are just getting a bad rap.
Wikipedia
http://www.slothconservation.org
Adopt a sloth today
CHARLEY WAFFLE 