ennui

l'ennui (FR N-M) profound sadness, great chagrin; pain one feels due to a conflict or disagreement, the conflict or disagreement itself; feeling of emptiness, weariness caused by boredom; vague melancholy, moral lassitude in which one no longer takes pleasure in anything. A quintessentially French concept, ennui's true flavor is untranslatable. »L'ennui« began to assume epidemic proportions in the 19th century, figuring prominently in poetry by Lamartine (1790 – 1869) and, of course…