Make Your Point > Archived Issues > TAEDIUM VITAE
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pronounce
TAEDIUM VITAE:
Say it "TEE dee um VY tee."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Have you ever been standing in a library, enjoying the wealth of books that would take a hundred lifetimes to read, and find yourself giggling, thinking how wonderful it all is?
Life, like a library, is overwhelmingly full of possibilities, and mind-bogglingly interesting. Time to burst into song with this bit from "The Circle of Life:"
From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun,
There's more to see than can ever be seen,
More to do than can ever be done.
That's how I see things. If you share my view, then you're probably blessed with a sense of ____ de viv__, or the joy of life. There are too many interesting things, more than enough to fill our time here on the planet.
But if you take the opposite view, then you're probably cursed with a sense of taedium vitae, or the dullness of life. For you, there's too much wearisome time here, and not enough interesting things to fill it.
You can see how the term taedium vitae is based on the Latin taedere, "weary," and vita, "life."
That explains why it looks so much like the word tedious, meaning "long, tiresome, taking forever, being the same again and again, making you wearied and annoyed."
And because the Latin vita, "life," is closely related to vivere, "to live," we can also draw some connections between taedium vitae and other words about life, like...
viv__ty ("liveliness");
m___s viv___i ("a way of life");
r_viv__y ("to bring back to life");
and, once again, ____ de viv__, ("the joy of life").
(To reveal any term with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Taedium vitae" is Latin for "weariness of life." It's a phrase that we've used in English since about 1759.
Taedium vitae is the sense that life is extremely dull. In other words, it's the feeling that life is tiresome and boring.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech: noun, the uncountable kind: "The vacation relieved his taedium vitae."
Other forms:
You can italicize this term, if you prefer.
And you can spell it in the more American way: "tedium vitae."
And, you can fuse the final two vowels: "taedium vitæ."
I'll stick with the unitalicized, Latiny version with the standard vowels, "taedium vitae," since it's more common.
how to use it:
This term is rare, but when your audience hears it or sees it written down, they'll understand it pretty easily.
It carries a tone that's serious, scholarly, literary, and philosophical.
Talk about someone's taedium vitae, or the taedium vitae of some person, group, place, time period, work of literature, etc.
Or, talk about someone feeling or experiencing taedium vitae, stumbling into or crawling out of taedium vitae, relieving or shedding their taedium vitae, etc.
examples:
"Don Fabrizio... indulges in long and fatalistic conversations about the tedium vitae of his [aristocratic] class."
— Will Self, The Telegraph, 9 February 2009
"A pastor I know... told me she was sick of the phrase 'first-world problems' — not just because it delegitimizes the perfectly real problems of those of us lucky enough to have enough to eat and Internet access, but because it denies the same stupid trivial human worries to people who aren’t. Are you not entitled to existential angst or tedium vitae if you live in Chad — must you always nobly suffer traditional third-world problems like malaria and coups d’état?"
— Tim Kreider, "The Feast of Pain," New York Times, 26 April 2014
has this page helped you understand "taedium vitae"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "taedium vitae" without saying "ennui" or "jadedness."
try it out:
The English poet Edward Young wrote this about people in their old age:
"By fixing their attention on objects most important, they escape numberless little anxieties, and that taedium vitae which often hangs so heavy on [life's] evening hours."
In other words, we can escape that feeling of taedium vitae by focusing on what's important.
Try to expand on this point. Whether or not you're already in your old age, what are the joyful or important things you do every day--physically, mentally, or both--that could help you escape a sense of taedium vitae?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Lightning Rhyming Recall!
In each issue this month, see how fast you can recall three words. They’re unrelated in meaning--probably--but they rhyme. To check your answers, scroll to the bottom of the issue. We’ll start out easy and ramp up the difficulty as the month goes on. Enjoy!
Each word below rhymes with FROLIC:
A. (3 syllables, adjective) If your days are all filled with an easy country charm, your lifestyle is…
B. (4 syllables, adjective) Things that are corrosively mean and angry are…
C. (4 syllables, adjective) Something expressed in terms that stretch the truth is…
review this word:
A. WALKS OF LIFE.
B. LIFE'S LONGUEURS.
C. LIFE'S ADVENTURES.
2. In a letter to his friend Phillip Mazzei, Thomas Jefferson wrote that his "_____," and that he "shall not have much to encounter of the tedium vitae."
A. work has met with approval
B. health has suddenly broke down
C. countrymen have remained true to their principles
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Have you ever been standing in a library, enjoying the wealth of books that would take a hundred lifetimes to read, and find yourself giggling, thinking how wonderful it all is? "Taedium vitae" is Latin for "weariness of life." It's a phrase that we've used in English since about 1759.
Part of speech: noun, the uncountable kind: "The vacation relieved his taedium vitae."
This term is rare, but when your audience hears it or sees it written down, they'll understand it pretty easily.
"Don Fabrizio... indulges in long and fatalistic conversations about the tedium vitae of his [aristocratic] class."
Explain the meaning of "taedium vitae" without saying "ennui" or "jadedness."
The English poet Edward Young wrote this about people in their old age:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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