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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."
Examples of ennui in a Sentence
Roger G. Newton, The Truth of Science, 1997
Chauncey and I were keen enough about our aesthetic solution to the ennui of war to try to proselytize others. He organized discussion groups with the crew; I took volunteers to visit landmarks …
—Louis Auchincloss, "Atlantic War,"
in Authors at Sea, ed. Robert Shenk, 1997
The attendant outside was standing on tennis balls, exercising the soles of her feet, her body swaying back and forth with the ennui of jelly.
—Edna O'Brien, New Yorker, 17 June 1991
Thus the days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us …
—Thomas Jefferson, in a letter dated 7 Feb. 1787
Thomas Jefferson: Writings, 1984
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
Robert Klose, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Feb. 2025
Though some of the scenes around Japanese culture are dialed up for comedic effect, the film’s theme of existential ennui will ring true for most.
—Aislyn Greene, AFAR Media, 19 Feb. 2025
A feeling of ennui abides; this Camus comparison does not seem idle.
—Steven Zeitchik, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Feb. 2025
All this consumer ennui comes at a time when inflation is not actually that high.
—Daniel De Visé, USA TODAY, 13 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ennui
Cite this Entry
“Ennui.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennui. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
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