ressentiment

[ruh-sahn-tee-mahn]

noun

1. any cautious, defeatist, or cynical attitude based on the belief that the individual and human institutions exist in a hostile or indifferent universe or society.

2. an oppressive awareness of the futility of trying to improve one's status in life or in society.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ressentiment¹

From French, dating back to 1940–45; resentment

Example Sentences

His mixture of insult, ressentiment, and buffoonery is a work of genius.

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Television and music, monuments and memorials have all been prime levers of a political project, a campaign of cultural ressentiment and national rebirth, that culminated this May on the blue-green carpets beneath Hagia Sophia’s dome.

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"Redistribution" is a bad word, reeking of ressentiment, only to be applied to measures that would benefit the lower three-quarters of the population.

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In life if not in his philosophy, the ressentiment of those nursing a grievance is often directed downward, from those who have little to those who have less.

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By stoking ressentiment and algorithmically-driven marketing that pressures deliberating citizens to become impulse-buying consumers, Trump ushered millions into a political twilight zone where democracy is suspended by strongmen.

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