Why this word is great
MIRTHLESSNESS — [Noun] The state or condition of being devoid of mirth, cheer, or joy. From the Middle English *mirthless* ("without mirth"), itself from *mirth* ("joy, gaiety") + *-less* ("without"), with the suffix *-ness* forming the abstract noun denoting a state or quality. Unlike solemnity, which implies a serious and dignified gravity, or melancholy, which denotes a specific, pensive sadness, mirthlessness is a broader, more neutral vacancy where cheer simply fails to alight. It is the flat, stale air in a room where a joke has just died, the mechanical consumption of a meal without taste or company, and the sound of distant laughter that sharpens the silence of one's own room—the quiet, ambient temperature of a world operating without its pleasure principle.