Ennui – Wacky Word Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to learn a new and peculiar word. Wacky Word Wednesday is a weekly celebration of the wackiest and most interesting words from around the world.  To improve your vocabulary, it’s important to keep your curiosity alive. That’s why we’ve prepared a word that should make you aware of the dangers of boredom and motivate you to stay busy!

This week’s word, à la Termwiki.com, is:

ennui [ahn-wee] -noun Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom.

Ennui is derived from the French word enui, meaning boredom or annoyance. It refers to a feeling of listlessness and general dissatisfaction resulting from lack of activity or excitement. It also means the feeling of being bored by something tedious, and of utter weariness and discontent resulting from lack of interest.

We’ve definitely all had our fill of ennui at times. That’s because it’s so easy to fall into a routine and suddenly find yourself feeling weary and losing interest in daily occurrences. You also experience ennui when you have absolutely nothing to do, or get stuck in a room with no TV, internet, or books to keep you entertained.  If you happen to find yourself in such a situation, you can refer back to this article to occupy yourself with nothing but your mind.

Now, if you feel like you have been contending with ennui for a long time, we suggest that you stop for a moment and think of the fun things you could do to enrich your life.  You might have a long vacation from work or school, but that doesn’t mean that you should stay at home and do nothing. We all know that being bored to death is no fun. Hang out with friends! Learn an instrument or simply follow your passion. For further suggestions, try this link out.

Ennui is also a condition of being tedious. If your job is to reply thousands of emails every day, you probably have a better understanding of this word. For those struggling with ennui at work, we’ve provided an article on How to Battle Business Boredom.

Here are two examples of ennui used in a sentence:

• The servants relieved their ennui with gambling and gossip about their masters. (Wordnik)

• The kind of ennui that comes from having too much time on one’s hands and too little will to find something productive to do. (Merriam-Webster)

Well, that’s all for now. We hope that if you’re stuck in an ennui-filled rut you’ll find inspiration to break the routine and explore the world. Have a great week and see you next time!

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