inertia
n. uncountablen. a feeling of not wanting to move or change anything. In science, it also means that an object stays still or keeps moving unless something else stops it.
n. the tendency of a body to maintain its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force; by extension, a resistance to change or a lack of activity.
The company's growth stopped because of management inertia.
Overcoming the inertia of a large bureaucracy requires significant political will and a clear plan for reform.
In physics, the mass of an object determines its inertia, while in social psychology, the term describes the tendency for individuals to maintain existing habits despite changing circumstances.
From Latin inertia (“lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence”), from iners (“unskilled, inactive”), from in- (“without, not”) + ars (“skill, art”). Something close to the modern physics sense was first used in New Latin by Johannes Kepler.
Often used metaphorically to describe a lack of motivation or a resistance to social or organizational change.