Crossword solvers know ennui well. That synonym of boredom is tailor-made to fit a grid’s awkward corner. A mainstay of “crossword-ese”, the offbeat glossary that only exists on the puzzle page, ennui belongs with other common rarities like alee and ogee and every African antelope in between.
But then Pixar threw ennui into the light. The credit goes to Inside Out 2 , the story of a young hockey teen called Riley, or more, the emotions she carries. Out goes Joy from the original, usurped by Anxiety for this latest puberty chapter.
Fear gets the flick for Embarrassment, while Sadness defers to Ennui. Inside Out 2’s new emotions include Anxiety, Envy and Ennui (voiced by French star Adèle Exarchopoulos). So why not Boredom, I wondered.
Why did Pixar pick the crossword-word? For starters, “on-wee” is funnier to say, plus you have the visual advantage of dressing the emotion in Gallic chic, with emo fringe and a Parisian accent. (“Ooh-la-la, Joie is very old school..
.” ). The film is fun, especially the “sar-chasm” that Ennui carves in Riley’s mindscape, but I puzzled throughout whether ennui and boredom were truly synonymous.
Crosswords say as much, but I was less sold. Charles Dickens was the writer to popularise boredom in 1853, the word at least. Bleak House presents the term six times, typically with “a series of undisguisable yawns”.
Boredom had popped up before then – notably 10 years prior in The Albion , an expat journal from New York – bu.