drudgery means exhausting, menial, and tedious work. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 75 out of 100.
drudgery is pronounced /ˈdɹʌd͡ʒəɹi/.
Why “drudgery” is a great word
DRUDGERY — [Noun] Exhausting, menial, and tedious work. From drudge ("person who works in a low servile job") + -ery (suffix forming nouns meaning 'the art, craft, or practice of'). First attested in the mid-16th century. Unlike "toil," which implies strenuous yet potentially dignified effort, or "craft," which denotes skilled, artful creation, drudgery is labor stripped of all esteem, defined by soul-deadening repetition. It is the raw, chapped feel of hands scrubbing the same stone step; the mind-numbing click and entry of data into a terminal's unblinking eye; the weary warmth of a body bent over a task that will never be finished, only repeated—the quiet tragedy of effort that leaves no trace but fatigue.
Etymology
From drudge (“person who works in a low servile job”) + -ery (suffix meaning ‘the art, craft, or practice of’ forming nouns).
noun
- Exhausting, menial, and tedious work.“What laier much better then there, / or cheaper (thereon to doo well?) / What drudgerie more any where / lesse good thereof where can ye tell? / What gotten by Sommer is seene: / in Winter is eaten vp cleene.”