SNP’s word of the day: Malaisey
Word: Malaisey
Meaning: “Malaise” comes from the French mal (bad) and aise (ease, roughly), thus meaning “ill at ease.” “Malaisey,” though, takes those unspecific feelings of illness and uneasiness and adds a lazy unwillingness to actually do anything about them.
Usage: “Can’t do $16 cocktails tonight—too malaisey.” -- Me, ‘cause I made this one up. Sort of.
You should know it because: you might very well (or, well, not so well) have it. Summer depression is counterintuitive but common. Maybe the malaise comes from feeling ill at ease with all that sunshine; it doesn’t feel right, when world news worsens daily and decline seems inexorable. Or maybe it’s just from feelings, period—the ones you ignore when you’re busier the rest of the year. Most people work less in summer and have more time to think, which is usually dangerous; as one of my editors says, this is the “long dark teatime of the soul.”
Summer, especially in these almost-gone dog days, makes you lazy, too. And thus, malaisey. It’s that feeling of not knowing what to do with yourself, coupled with the dead-sureness you wouldn’t do it anyway. But you can beat malaisiness by joining it: what do you actually have to do, anyway? It’s August. Make like Daisy Buchanan, eternal summer heroine and possibly malaisiest woman of all time, and pour yourself another gin fizz.