Helen started, and said she feared she had been sitting too long idle. – Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849), Helen, 1834

Desidiousness. Lat. sitting too much; slothfulness, idleness, carelessness. – A New Dictionary of the English Language by Charles Richardson, 1836

[T]hey marched and counter-marched, clapped their hands, stamped hard upon the floor, and performed various evolutions for the purpose of circulating the blood, which by sitting too long is apt to stagnate, and render them, particularly in this climate, dull and sleepy. – Joseph Holt Ingraham, South-West, 1835 [Originally published anonymously, “By a

And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. – Bible, Exodus XXXII