languor
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlæŋɡə/
ipa: /ˈlæŋ(ɡ)ɚ/
rhymes: -æŋɡə(ɹ)
Forms: form: languors
form: languour
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English langore, langour (“disease, illness; misery, sadness; suffering; condition or event causing sadness, suffering, etc.; unwholesomeness; idleness, inertia; depression, self-disgust; expression of grief”) [and other forms], from Middle French languer, langueur, langour, and Anglo-Norman langor, langour, langur, Old French langueur, languour (“disease, illness; suffering; emotional fatigue, sadness; listlessness; stagnation”) (modern French langueur (“languor”)), and from their etymon Latin languor (“faintness, feebleness; languor; apathy”), from languēre, the present active infinitive of langueō (“to feel faint or weak; (figurative) to be idle, inactive; to be listless”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg-, *(s)leh₁g-. The English word is cognate with Catalan llangor, Italian languore (“faintness, weakness; languor”), langore (obsolete), Old Occitan langor (modern Occitan langor), Portuguese langor, languor (obsolete), Spanish langor.
Senses: examples: text: languor of convalescence
text: Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly, that I felt the palpitation of every artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through languor and extreme weakness.
ref: 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 101–102:
text: As the opinion announcements have stretched past the half-hour mark, some in the public gallery exhibit a bit of languor, but they perk up when [U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena] Kagan begins discussing western gray squirrels.
ref: 2024 June 28, Mark Walsh, “Consider the wild gray squirrel, Kagan rebukes her colleagues as court overrules Chevron”, in SCOTUSblog:
synonyms: torpor
glosses: A state of the body or mind caused by exhaustion or disease and characterized by a languid or weary feeling; lassitude; (countable) an instance of this.
glosses: Melancholy caused by lovesickness, sadness, etc.; (countable) an instance of this.
examples: text: I rushed towards her, and embraced her with ardour; but the deathly languor and coldness of the limbs told me, that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished.
ref: 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 120:
text: From languor she passed to the lightest vivacity; her temper became merry and wild in the extreme; she was all at once a tease, a tomboy, and a witch.
ref: 1923, Elinor Wylie, “The Serpent in Persepolis”, in Jennifer Lorn: A Sedate Extravaganza. […], New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, book 3 (The Prince), page 266:
glosses: Dullness, sluggishness; lack of vigour; stagnation.
examples: text: It is earth's brief breathing space, after the heat and hurry of her busier time; like that repose known only to the young and happy, when the nerves gradually compose themselves, the thoughts gather into some vague but delicious train, and the eyes are closed by languor before sleep.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 1–2:
text: The languor of Youth—how unique and quintessential it is! How quickly, how irrecoverably lost! The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of Youth—all save this—come and go with us through life; [...] but languor—the relaxation of yet unwearied sinews, the mind sequestered and self-regarding, the sun standing still in the heavens and the earth throbbing to our own pulse—that belongs to Youth alone and dies with it.
ref: 1945, Evelyn Waugh, chapter 4, in Brideshead Revisited […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1952, →OCLC, book 1 (Et in Arcadia Ego), pages 70–71:
text: Repose! The very word has a nostalgic ring to it, conjuring up a vanished world of pale solitude, gentle distances, summer vistas, languour, and lovely women …
ref: 1984, Marco Vassi, Lying Down: A Horizontal Worldview, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Capra Press, →ISBN, page 65:
glosses: Listless indolence or inactivity, especially if enjoyable or relaxing; dreaminess; (countable) an instance of this.
examples: text: There is a languor in the air which encourages your own, and the poetry of memory is in every drooping flower and falling leaf.
ref: 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 113–114:
text: [A] certain languor in the air hinted at an early summer.
ref: 1957, James Purdy, The New Yorker, volume 33, New York, N.Y.: New Yorker Magazine Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page clxvi:
text: The evening was mild, with a certain languor in the air.
ref: 2018, Georges Simenon, translated by William Hobson, Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN:
glosses: Heavy humidity and stillness of the air.
glosses: Sorrow; suffering; also, enfeebling disease or illness; (countable, obsolete) an instance of this.
Related terms: word: languid
word: languidly
word: languidness
word: languish
word: languished
word: languisher
word: languishing
word: languishingly
word: languishment
word: languorous
word: languorously