ennui

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɒnˈwiː/ (UK); /ɑnˈwi/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ennui (“boredom”),^[2][3][4] from Old French enui (“annoyance”),^[2][3][5][4] from Old French enuier (“to annoy, vex”),^[2][3][5] from Late Latin *inodiāre (“to make odious”),^[2][3] from the Latin phrase in odiō esse “to be hateful”.^[2] It is thus a doublet of annoy.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mental weariness and dissatisfaction from lack of occupation or interest (1667).^[7][5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used in English as a French word and was naturalized by 1758,^[4] though, as the OED noted, its pronunciation was never anglicized.^[4] Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary date it to 1732.^[3][2] A verb to ennui “to bore” is recorded from 1805.^[7]

Timeline

• 1667 – boredom, mental weariness.^[7][5][4]
• 1732 – first date given by Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary.^[3][2]
• 1790 – a cause of ennui.^[7]
• 1805 – verb, to bore, weary.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Listless weariness and dissatisfaction from lack of interest; boredom.

Verb

1. To bore or weary.

Related words

• annoy
• odium

Usage notes

Random House lists listlessness, tedium, lassitude and languor as synonyms.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press