tedium

English

Francesco Brunery's painting A Tedious Conference (19th–20th century), depicting clerics suffering from tedium during a meeting

Alternative forms

• taedium (Commonwealth)
• tædium (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin taedium, from taedēre (“to weary”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtiː.di.əm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːdiəm

Noun

tedium (usually uncountable, plural tediums or tedia)

1. Boredom or tediousness; ennui.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter VIII, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Yet active life was the genuine soil for his virtues; and he sometimes suffered tedium from the monotonous succession of events in our retirement.

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 192:

     Nothing actual ever suits pure expectation and such purity of expectation is a great source of tedium.

Synonyms

• boredom, drudgery, ennui, tediousness

Related terms

• taedium vitae
• tedious

Translations

boredom or tediousness; ennui

• Bulgarian: скука (bg) f (skuka), досада (bg) f (dosada)
• Dutch: verveling (nl)
• Finnish: ikävystyttävyys (fi), tylsyys (fi)
• French: ^{(please verify)} ennuyeux (fr), ^{(please verify)} fatigant (fr), ^{(please verify)} usant (fr), ^{(please verify)} fastidieux (fr)
• Galician: fastío m, tedio m
• German: Langeweile (de) f
• Greek: ανία (el) f (anía)

  Ancient: ἀνία f (anía)

• Ido: tedo (io)
• Irish: leadrán m
• Latin: taedium n
• Latvian: garlaicība f, garlaiks m
• Maori: takeotanga
• Plautdietsch: Lankwiel m
• Polish: nuda (pl) f
• Portuguese: tédio (pt) m, aborrecimento (pt) m, fastio (pt) m, enfado (pt) m
• Romanian: plictiseală (ro) f, urât (ro) n, anosteală (ro) f
• Russian: ску́ка (ru) f (skúka)
• Spanish: tedio (es) m
• Turkish: bezginlik (tr), usanç (tr), usantı (tr)