was wotd|2007|January|10
English
Etymology
From French ennui < Old French enui (annoyance) < enuier (see ennuyer and annoy) < Vulgar Latin inodiare < Latin odium (hate)
Pronunciation
IPA|original French /��n.ɥi/
IPA|/�n�wi�/ (RP)
IPA|/��n�wi�/ (US)
audio|en-us-ennui.ogg|Audio (US)
Noun
en-noun|-
- listlessness, boredom.
- melancholia, depression.
Quotations
1956 � w:Arthur C. Clarke|Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, p 44
:Sympathy, for one whose loneliness must be even greater than his own; an ennui produced by ages of repetition; and an impish sense of fun�these were the discordant factors that prompted Khedron to act.
1990 � w:Terry Pratchett|Terry Pratchett, Eric, p 165
:Now and again screams of ennui rose from between the potted plants, but mainly there was the terrible numbing silence of the human brain being reduced to cream cheese from the inside out.
1997 � w:Terrance Dicks|Terrance Dicks, The Eight Doctors, p 256
:It was also known as ennui, the megrims, the blues, or the black dog. But whatever the name, the symptoms were always the same: listlessness, boredom, a sense that life was ultimately meaningless and futile, without point or purpose.
Translations
German: Langeweile f (1), Ennui m or n (1)
Japanese: ���� (tsurezure)
Russian: �к�ка (skúka) f (1), �о�ка (toská) f (1,2), �анд�а (�andrá) f (1,2)
Related terms
ennuyer
ennuyeux
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fr:ennui
io:ennui
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it:ennui
hu:ennui
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ru:ennui
fi:ennui
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