You can think of languish as strength leaking out slowly while nothing is done about it. Picture a plant nobody has watered for a fortnight: still standing, still green in places, a little lower every day. Whatever the subject is -- a body, a person locked away, a share price, a team, a file on a shelf -- the picture holds. It is low, it has been low for a long time, and no hand is reaching in to change that.
From the word’s history
From Middle English languysshen, via Anglo-Norman and Middle French languir, from Late Latin languire, an alteration of Latin languere 'to be faint, unwell'. Wiktionary notes it is cognate with slack, which is the same idea seen from another angle: something that has lost its tension.
經由中古英語 languysshen、古法語 languir，來自拉丁文 languēre（虛弱、不舒服）。來源資料也指出它和 slack（鬆掉的）同源。這兩個字剛好從兩邊照出同一個畫面：原本繃著的東西鬆了、力氣沒了。
Wiktionary entry for 'languish' (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:813086622:32555)
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