weltschmerz
IPA: wˈɛɫtʃmˈɝz
Root Word: Weltschmerz
noun
- An apathetic or pessimistic view of life; depression concerning or discomfort with the human condition or state of the world; mal du siècle, world-weariness.
- Alternative letter-case form of Weltschmerz [An apathetic or pessimistic view of life; depression concerning or discomfort with the human condition or state of the world; mal du siècle, world-weariness.]
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Examples of "weltschmerz" in Sentences
- Considering "weltschmerz," which allegedly means world-weariness or hip ennui.
- "In John le Carré, of whom I'm a fantastic admirer, there was a weltschmerz that came from them knowing they weren't better than the enemy."
- But you would have to be consumed with schadenfreude, weltschmerz or one of those other German things to wish that on any of the celebs here, who seemed pleasant enough in a telly kind of way.
- Both girls seemed to know all the words and spelled them with few questions, until Fiola paused a long and hard before making the gaffe of spelling "weltschmerz" with a "v" ... when she knew it was German!
- This Dublin trio's Sting-soundalike leader, Danny O'Donoghue, says the follow-up to their 2m-selling debut was inspired by "the journey from a feeling of devastation in the pit of my stomach", which might prime you for Leonard Cohen-ish weltschmerz, rather than manicured Celt-rock.
- And while anger, fervor, despair, not to mention weltschmerz and ennui we are, after all the party of uppity francophiles and -- apparently -- left-wing Nazi socialists are all common reactions to this undeniable setback for a progressive agenda, let me suggest another, less acknowledged reaction: comfort.
- Lots of those German things like angst and weltschmerz came to mind when watching Match of the Day on Saturday night, particularly angst, which the Urban Dictionary defines as a "transcendent emotion in that it combines the unbearable anguish of life with the hopes of overcoming this seemingly impossible situation", and illustrates with a picture of Roy Hodgson.
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