inanition

n.

1. Exhaustion, as from lack of nourishment or vitality.
2. The condition or quality of being empty.

[Middle English inanisioun, emptiness, from Old French inanicion, exhaustion from hunger, from Late Latin inānītiō, inānītiōn-, emptiness, from inānītus, past participle of inānīre, to make empty, from Latin inānis, empty.]

Columnist George F. Will, channeling Lynne Truss in her new book on manners, declares that the new technologies of portable entertainment deplete us more than they enrich us:

"With everyone chatting on cell phones when not floating in iPod-land, 'this is an age of social autism, in which people just can't see the value of imagining their impact on others.' We are entertaining ourselves into inanition."

Link: IPod's Missed Manners

Posted November 21, 2005.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

Exhaustion and wasting due to complete lack or non-assimilation of food; a state of starvation.

The exhausted state due to prolonged undernutrition; starvation.

lethargy

Dansk (Danish)
n. - tomhed, afkræftelse

Nederlands (Dutch)
uitputting (m.n. door ondervoeding)

Français (French)
n. - inanition

Deutsch (German)
n. - Leere, Entkräftung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ασιτία

Italiano (Italian)
inanizione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - inanição (f)

Русский (Russian)
истощение, пустота

Español (Spanish)
n. - inanición

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - utmattning, apati, letargi

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
空虚, 空洞, 无精打采

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 空虛, 空洞, 無精打采

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 공허, 영양실조

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 栄養失調による衰弱, 無気力, 空虚

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فراغ, جوع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ריקנות, תשישות, חולשה‬

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