cunctation means delay, hesitation, procrastination. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.
cunctation is pronounced /kʌŋkˈteɪʃən/.
Why “cunctation” is a great word
CUNCTATION — [Noun] The act or habit of deliberate delay, lingering, or tarrying. From the Latin cūnctātiō ("a delaying, tarrying"), from cūnctor ("to linger, hesitate"). Unlike "procrastination," which implies a culpable deferral of duty, or "hesitation," which suggests a brief pause born of doubt, cunctation is a formalized, almost ceremonial suspension of action. It is the general reviewing his maps one final time as the enemy assembles; the diplomat slowly refolding his spectacles above the unsigned treaty; the chess master's measured silence before the inevitable move. It is the dignified resistance to the tyranny of haste, a quiet art of holding the uncommitted future at bay.
noun
- Delay, hesitation, procrastination.“And lest any man should think her intent was to unnestle ill neighbours, and not to aid good neighbours, or that she was readier to restore what was invaded by others than to render what was in her own hands; see if the time provided not a new occasion afterwards, when through their own division, without the intermise of strangers, her forces were again sought and required; she forsook them not, p”