jejune

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is pronounced ji-joon. It properly means 'meagre, scanty; dull or uninteresting' and is used primarily of ideas or arguments. It is derived from the Latin word jejunus meaning 'fasting', and originally meant 'without food' in English. The writer Kingsley Amis famously defended the traditional meaning of jejune against users of a newer meaning 'puerile, childish, naive', which first appeared in a play by George Bernard Shaw

(His jejune credulity as to the absolute value of his concepts—Arms and the Man, 1989).

This meaning may have arisen by a false association with juvenile, and it is now the predominant one:

Mother seemed jejune, at times, with her enthusiasms and her sense of mission—M. Howard, 1982

There's no passion in your jejune little world, is there?—weblog, British English 2005.

Despite currency, this is an awkward and cumbersome usage and it can usually be avoided in favour of readily available alternatives such as childish, infantile, or juvenile, and innocent, guileless, ingenuous, or naive. In some cases, it is impossible to tell which meaning is intended:

Perhaps your superiors realized that your rhetoric is sloppy, tendentious, jejune and banal—weblog, American English 2003.

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In a new memoir, Sen. Robert Byrd attempts to erase the stain of his early involvement with the Ku Klux Klan:

"My only explanation for the entire episode is that I was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision — a jejune and immature outlook — seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."

Link: A Senator's Shame

Posted June 20, 2005.

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

adjective

Lacking the qualities requisite for spiritedness and originality: bland, innocuous, insipid, namby-pamby, vapid, washy, waterish, watery. Informal wishy-washy. See excite/bore/interest, good/bad.

IN BRIEF: Uninteresting and dull.

His jejune response indicated that he had no interest in the subject.

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For a list of words related to jejune, see:

• Ordinary, Dull, Plain, or Banal

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See words rhyming with "jejune."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Jejune.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - naiv, kedelig, indholdsløs, tynd

Nederlands (Dutch)
naïef, saai, kinderachtig, vervelend, onvruchtbaar (land)

Français (French)
adj. - ennuyeux, plat

Deutsch (German)
adj. - geistlos, fade, unfruchtbar

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (για συγγραφείς κ.λπ.) στείρος, βαρετός, πληκτικός

Italiano (Italian)
puerile, noioso, arido

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - desinteressante, imaturo

Русский (Russian)
скудный, скучный, легкомысленный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - árido, seco, inmaduro, aburrido, sin interés, poco alimenticio, estéril, insípido

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - torftig, mager, tunn, andefattig, innehållslös

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
贫弱的, 无味干燥的, 不毛的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 貧弱的, 無味乾燥的, 不毛的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 불모의, 빈약한, 미숙한, 무미 건조한, 배경 지식이 없는

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 貧弱な, 乏しい, 無味乾燥な, 未熟な, 子供っぽい

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) (محاضرة) تافهه, غير ممتعه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ילדותי, לא מעניין, יבש, דל, זעום, רדוד (מבחינה אינטלקטואלית)‬

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