world-weary
Meaning
Feeling tired and bored with life because you have experienced too many unpleasant things and lost your enthusiasm.
Structure
Usage
After decades as a war correspondent, he returned home with a world-weary cynicism.
Her world-weary sigh suggested she had heard every excuse imaginable.
The novel's protagonist is a world-weary detective who has lost faith in the justice system.
Etymology
The compound 'world-weary' is a relatively modern formation, first appearing in English in the late 19th century. It combines the ancient concept of 'world', from the Proto-Germanic weraldiz (literally 'age of man'), with 'weary', from the Proto-Germanic wōrigaz, meaning 'tired'. The term's logic is transparent: it describes a profound fatigue not from physical labor, but from the accumulated burdens, disappointments, and monotony of worldly life and experience. It evokes a sense of existential exhaustion, where one has seen and endured too much of the world's troubles to retain any freshness of feeling or hope.
Analysis
- world: From Old English 'woruld', meaning 'human existence, the affairs of life'. In this compound, it signifies the sphere of human experience and activity. - weary: From Old English 'wērig', meaning 'tired, exhausted'. It functions as the descriptive state resulting from the preceding noun.