Negligent

How to spell negligent

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce negligent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does negligent mean?

1. adjectiveFailing to take proper care over something, especially a duty or responsibility.

Negligent in a sentence

• The landlord was found negligent for ignoring the broken smoke alarm.

• A negligent driver who runs a red light can cause serious harm.

Where does negligent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin neglegentem, the present participle of neglegere, a verb meaning 'to disregard' or 'not to attend to'. That verb was built from neg-, an old negative element meaning 'not', joined to legere, which literally meant 'to pick up, gather, or choose'; so to be neglegens was, in effect, to fail to pick something up or to refuse to give it attention. English took the word in during the 1400s, largely through Old French negligent, with the meaning of carelessly failing in one's duty. The same legere root sits inside a surprising family of English words, including 'collect', 'select', and even 'lecture', all involving gathering or choosing. The spelling trap is the soft '-gli-' in the middle and the unstressed '-ent' ending, which sounds identical to '-ant' yet must be spelled with an 'e' to match the Latin participle.

How the word is built

• neg- (not)
• leg (from Latin legere: to pick up, gather, choose)
• -ent (adjective suffix)