Word of the Day

Monday, May 13, 2002

lassitude

\LASS-uh-tood; LASS-uh-tyood\ , noun;

Lack of vitality or energy; weariness; listlessness.

Quotes:

The feverish excitement . . . had given place to a dull, regretful lassitude.

-- George Eliot, Romola

A long exercise of the mental powers induces a remarkable lassitude of the whole body.

-- Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

She felt aged, in deep lassitude and numb despair, and regretted not marrying Mai Dong before he left for the front.

-- Ha Jin, Waiting

Origin:

Lassitude is from Latin lassitudo, from lassus, "weary, exhausted."