Boredom
Etymology
The noun was coined by Charles Dickens in "Bleak House" (1852); the verb “to bore” (to weary) had appeared only in the 1760s, from an origin that remains genuinely unknown. So this near-universal feeling had no English name until the mid-1700s — some historians argue boredom as we know it is partly a modern invention, born with clocks, schedules, and leisure.
noun · /BOR-dum/
The restless, dissatisfied state of being unengaged and wishing for something to happen.
What it names
Reach for it for the specific ache of understimulation — time that won’t pass, attention with nowhere to go.
Example
Trapped in the four-hour layover with a dead phone, she felt boredom settle in like a fog.
Related idea
Against ennui: boredom is situational and cures easily (find something to do); ennui is existential and doesn’t — it’s a world-weary sense that nothing would be worth doing anyway. Boredom is a hunger; ennui is having lost your appetite.