adverb taking the 'to' particle, taru-adjective, adverb
procrastinating; dillydallying; idling away time
Formal, literary term describing the act of wasting time or letting time slip by without progress. Often used with ～として or ～たる in classical or highly formal contexts. Rare in modern conversation.
Spend days idly, letting time slip away.
荏苒たる歳月。
The years that have passed in vain.
Literary kanji form; rarely used in modern writing. The word itself is archaic and formal.
The exact derivation is uncertain. The kanji 荏 (soft, weak) and 苒 (lush growth) combine to suggest a sense of time passing softly and unproductively, but this is a conventional association rather than a confirmed historical origin.