ennui

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 15, 2009 is: ennui • \ahn-WEE\ • noun : a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction : boredom Examples: In reaction to the ennui that he was feeling after working for twelve years in an unchallenging position, Darrell began to look for a new career. Did you know? The French loanword "ennui" comes from the very same Late Latin word that gave us "annoy" -- "inodiare" ("to make loathsome"). We borrowed "ennui" several centuries after absorbing "annoy" into the language. "Ennui" deals more with boredom than irritation -- and a somewhat specific sort of boredom at that. It generally refers to the feeling of jadedness that can result from living a life of too much ease. The poet Charles Lloyd described it well in his 1823 "Stanzas to Ennui" when he referred to that world-weary sensation as a "soul-destroying fiend" which visits with its "pale unrest / The chambers of the human breast / Where too much happiness hath fixed its home." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.