weltschmerz
/ˈvɛltˌʃmɛːts/
weltschmerz means 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. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 71 out of 100.
weltschmerz is pronounced /ˈvɛltˌʃmɛːts/.
Why “weltschmerz” is a great word
WELTSCHMERZ — [Noun] A profound feeling of world-weariness, melancholy, or pessimism arising from the perceived inadequacy of reality compared to one's ideals. From the German Weltschmerz, coined in 1810 by Jean Paul Richter, from Welt ("world") + Schmerz ("pain, sorrow"). Unlike ennui, which suggests a listless boredom born of satiety, or angst, which denotes a more acute, personal dread, weltschmerz is a grand, contemplative mourning for an ideal that never was. It is the weary sigh of the post-revolutionary idealist, the view from a hilltop of a city that can never be as beautiful as the map promised, and the pang of looking from a star-charted atlas to a newspaper's front page—a dignified resignation to the permanent disappointment of being.
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.“And in this respect [Ludwig] Uhland presents a marked and useful contrast to the lackadaisical, sentimental, Weltschmerz school, the poets of which trade on their own pretended misery, and, cunningly enough, suggest that their poems must be touching and true in proportion as the authors set themselves forth as peculiarly skilled in bitterness of heart and badness of life.”