Word of the Day

: February 19, 2010

inane

noun ih-NAYN

What It Means

: void or empty space

inane in Context

"And thus likewise we sometimes speak of place, distance, or bulk in the great inane beyond the confines of the world …" (John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

Did You Know?

The adjective "inane" is now most commonly encountered as a synonym of "shallow" or "silly." But when this word first entered the English language in the early 17th century, it was used to mean "empty" or "insubstantial." It was this older sense that gave rise, in the latter half of the 17th century, to the noun "inane," which often serves as a poetic reference to the void of space ("the illimitable inane," "the limitless inane," "the incomprehensible inane"). This noun usage has not always been viewed in a favorable light. Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), says of "inane" that "it is used licentiously for a substantive," which in current English means that it is used as a noun without regard to the rules.