ennui

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en·nui

 (ŏn-wē′, ŏn′wē)
n.
Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom: "The servants relieved their ennui with gambling and gossip about their masters" (John Barth).

[French, from Old French enui, from ennuyer, to annoy, bore; see annoy.]
Word History: Both annoy and ennui originate from the same Latin phrase. When the Romans wanted to say that they hated something, they used an idiom whose wording may seem a little unexpected for speakers of English: mihi in odiō est, which literally means "to me in a condition of dislike or hatred it is." Translated more idiomatically, the expression just means "I hate or dislike." The words in odiō ("in hatred") in this idiom gave rise to the Vulgar Latin verb *inodiāre, "to be hateful or a source of trouble to, annoy," the source of the Old French verb ennuyer or anoier, "to trouble, annoy, bore." This verb was borrowed into Middle English by around 1275 as anoien, our annoy. The Old French verb anoier also gave rise to a noun, variously spelled enui and annui, meaning "chagrin, sadness." The Modern French form of this noun, ennui, came to mean "boredom, lassitude," and it was with this sense that the word was borrowed into English in the 1700s.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ennui

(ˈɒnwiː; French ɑ̃nɥi)
n
a feeling of listlessness and general dissatisfaction resulting from lack of activity or excitement
[C18: from French: apathy, from Old French enui annoyance, vexation; see annoy]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

en•nui

(ɑnˈwi)

n.
a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.
[1660–70; < French: boredom; Old French enui displeasure; see annoy]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

ennui

A feeling of general dissatisfaction and listlessness caused by boredom or lack of activity.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.ennui - the feeling of being bored by something tediousennui - the feeling of being bored by something tedious
dissatisfaction - the feeling of being displeased and discontent; "he was never slow to express his dissatisfaction with the service he received"
blahs - a general feeling of boredom and dissatisfaction
fatigue - (always used with a modifier) boredom resulting from overexposure to something; "he was suffering from museum fatigue"; "after watching TV with her husband she had a bad case of football fatigue"; "the American public is experiencing scandal fatigue"; "political fatigue"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

ennui

noun (Literary) boredom, dissatisfaction, tiredness, the doldrums, lethargy, tedium, lassitude, listlessness He suffered from ennui whenever he was alone.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

ennui

noun
The condition of being bored:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
アンニュイつれづれもの憂さ憂鬱無聊

ennui

[ɑ̃ːˈnwiː] Ntedio m, hastío m
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ennui

[ˈɒnwiː] nennui m
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

ennui

n no pl (liter)Ennui m (liter)
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
References in classic literature ?
"That is one of my ennuis. I came to meet my cousin--a dreadful English cousin, a member of my mother's family--who is in Paris for a week for her husband, and who wishes me to point out the
and it was all from ennui, gentlemen, all from ennui; inertia overcame me.
The surmise of my maturer years is that, bored by her interminable life, the venerable antiquity was simply yawning with ennui at every seam.
After four days of solitude, ennui, and consciousness of his impotence and insignificance- particularly acute by contrast with the sphere of power in which he had so lately moved- and after several marches with the marshal's baggage and the French army, which occupied the whole district, Balashev was brought to Vilna- now occupied by the French- through the very gate by which he had left it four days previously.
She was oppressed by ennui, and by that dissatisfaction which in women's minds is continually turning into a trivial jealousy, referring to no real claims, springing from no deeper passion than the vague exactingness of egoism, and yet capable of impelling action as well as speech.
As well as to weakness and exhaustion, does he appeal to too much strength, to superabundant vitality, to the ennui of idleness.
"Ennui is the mortal enemy of prisoners; I had ennui, and I amused myself with twisting that rope."
So much for the ennui extra muros; of the ennui of the interior we will give the reader an idea if he will with us follow the cavalcade to the majestic porch of the castle of the states.
It was not a condition of life which fitted her, and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui. She was moved by a kind of commiseration for Madame Ratignolle,--a pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment, in which no moment of anguish ever visited her soul, in which she would never have the taste of life's delirium.
She knew that at times she must be missed; and could not think, without pain, of Emma's losing a single pleasure, or suffering an hour's ennui, from the want of her companionableness: but dear Emma was of no feeble character; she was more equal to her situation than most girls would have been, and had sense, and energy, and spirits that might be hoped would bear her well and happily through its little difficulties and privations.
Jennings was in hopes, by this vigorous sketch of their future ennui, to provoke him to make that offer, which might give himself an escape from it;-- and if so, she had soon afterwards good reason to think her object gained; for, on Elinor's moving to the window to take more expeditiously the dimensions of a print, which she was going to copy for her friend, he followed her to it with a look of particular meaning, and conversed with her there for several minutes.
To anyone but myself, who had a great love for the sea, the hours would have seemed long and monotonous; but the daily walks on the platform, when I steeped myself in the reviving air of the ocean, the sight of the rich waters through the windows of the saloon, the books in the library, the compiling of my memoirs, took up all my time, and left me not a moment of ennui or weariness.