total.pardo

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 Were they alive today, users of Classical Latin might be surprised to find that centuries later a phrase of theirs still survives, although as a single word. The phrase mihi in odiō est (literally translated as “to me in a condition of dislike or hatred is”), meaning “I hate or dislike,” gave rise to the Vulgar Latin verb *inodiāre, “to make odious,” the source of the Old French verb ennuyer or anoier, “to annoy, bore.” This was borrowed into English by around 1275 as anoien, our annoy. From the Old French verb a noun meaning “worry, boredom” was derived, which became ennui in modern French. This noun, with the sense “boredom,” was borrowed into English in the 18th century, perhaps filling a need in polite, cultivated society.

ennui

A filmmaker, usually a director, who exercises creative control over his or her works and has a strong personal style. [French, from Old French autor, author. See author.]

auteur

Seppuku (Japanese: 切腹, “belly-cutting”) is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku is also known as hara-kiri (腹切り, “cutting the belly”) and is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana. In Japanese, hara-kiri is a colloquialism, seppuku being the more formal term. Samurai (and modern adherents of bushido) would use seppuku, whereas ordinary Japanese (who in feudal times as well as today looked askance at the practice) would use hara-kiri. Hara-kiri is the more common term in English, where it is often mistakenly rendered “hari-kari.” The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one’s master is known as oibara (追腹 or 追い腹, the kun’yomi reading) or tsuifuku (追腹, the on’yomi reading); the ritual is similar.

seppuku