languor
/ˈlaŋɡə
/noun [mass noun]
1Tiredness or inactivity, especially when pleasurable: her whole being was pervaded by a dreamy languor...
- The hedonistic pleasures of languor and warmth - going lightly dressed, swimming in balmy seas at dusk, talking and drinking under the stars - are just as appealing.
- There's an enormous tension between indolence and languor.
- The windswept Yorkshire hills, the terraced houses, dappled woods and shadowy interiors, help convey a warm summer languor.
Synonyms
lassitude, lethargy, listlessness, tiredness, torpor, fatigue, weariness;
laziness, idleness, indolence, inactivity, inertia, sluggishness;
sleepiness, drowsiness, somnolence, enervation, lifelessness, apathy
2An oppressive stillness of the air: the afternoon was hot, quiet, and heavy with languor...
- The sea breezes, the tropical languor, that old susegad, had conspired to make Goa an oriental fleshpot.
- Sometimes both the languor and the silence are overdone.
- Everything seems to billow, there are clouds of this and drifts of that, totally in harmony with the languor of a drowsy summer day.
Synonyms
stillness, tranquillity, calm, calmness, lull, silence, windlessness, oppressiveness, heaviness
Derivatives
languorous
/ adjective ...- Leisure conspired with the languorous climate to the spinning of dreams.
- It's so much easier to be languorous and inactive when it's hot.
- For the last two years, it has been conducted with much fanfare in a carnival atmosphere, and it has attracted young people unlikely to be otherwise interested in the leisurely, and apparently languorous, world of cricket.
languorously
/ adverb ...- A no-frills bible of basic cooking, but not an idiot's guide, which makes the most of budget-priced food to wolf down rather than linger languorously over the flavours.
- Just ahead, several yellow-headed vultures formed a mourning party, and as we got closer, they flapped languorously into the air.
- Brushing away the crumbs left behind from my feast, stretching languorously as I look about my surroundings, I see doors that lead to places unknown.
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from Latin, from languere (see languish). The original sense was 'illness, distress', later 'faintness, lassitude'; current senses date from the 18th century, when such lassitude became associated with a romantic yearning.