vapourishness

Why this word is great

VAPOURISHNESS — Noun. The quality of being vapourish, especially in the sense of moodiness or nervous irritability. From vapourish ("relating to vapors or moodiness") + -ness ("state or quality"). Unlike melancholy, which implies a deep, persistent sadness, vapourishness suggests a more fleeting, nervous irritability; unlike hysteria, which denotes extreme emotional excess, vapourishness conveys a milder, more transient nervousness. It is the flicker of a candle flame, not the engulfing fire—the way a sudden draft unsettles papers on a desk, the prickle of a half-remembered dream upon waking, the restless shift from one thought to another like mist dissolving in the sun. A thing of edges, never the weight of the whole.