Word Nerd Wednesday

ennui  noun
en·​nui | \ ˌän-ˈwē  \

Definition of ennui
: a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction : BOREDOM
​​https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennui#synonyms

Moira Rose. The queen of a well-used vocabulary.

I can't think of a better word to use for the inaugural post of this series. I feel like I spent a large part of 2020 in various states of ennui. However, there's another reason I chose this word to start off with. It shows up somewhat frequently as I'm reading and I had to look it up the first 50 times at least. For some reason I could never remember exactly what it meant. Then, every time I would look it up, I'd kick myself for seeing how simple the definition was. ALSO, I had no idea how to pronounce it for a while. En-nooey? En-u-eye? En-wah? Nope. None of those. It's pronounced "Ahn-wee" and isn't that fun to say? For the appropriate pronunciation symbols see above or click on the link to Merriam-Webster to hear someone say it out loud!

So, why am I starting a series about words you may ask? Isn't reading the dictionary the very definition of ennui? No! I think it's fascinating to learn about the words we use, how they came to be, and why some of them go in and out of style. I like to learn new words, but I like learning about the ones I know just the same. You never know when you need a really good one.


“Ennui.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennui. Accessed 1 Jan. 2021.

---