patientia

Latin patientia derived from pati — to suffer, to endure, to allow. Patientia was the quality of enduring difficulty without complaint: the patience of Job, the patience of a farmer waiting for rain. The word gave English patience, patient (one who suffers medical treatment), impatient, and compassion (feeling with the sufferer). The original sense was active suffering, not passive waiting.

Patience as a card game appears in French and German records in the late 18th century — possible origins in French Russia during the Napoleonic era (the game was popular in Russian aristocratic circles). The first English-language book of patience games, Illustrated Games of Patience by Lady Adelaide Cadogan, appeared in 1870. The American term for the same games — solitaire — focuses on the aloneness rather than the endurance.

The computer age transformed solitaire (Microsoft bundled it with Windows 3.0 in 1990 specifically to teach mouse control) into the most-played computer game in history. Microsoft Solitaire has been played for more cumulative hours than any other game. The patience game played by millions of office workers waiting for their computers to respond was included to teach them how to use a mouse while appearing to do something else.

The virtuous Latin name endures: patience is what the game demands and what it develops (or fails to develop). The one-person card game named for the capacity to suffer has become the default activity of technological waiting.