ressentiment
Americannoun
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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.
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an oppressive awareness of the futility of trying to improve one's status in life or in society.
Etymology
Origin of ressentiment
From French, dating back to 1940–45; see origin at resentment
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When such rites and symbols fail, some flail about, seeking order in private delusions, Dartmouth College fraternities and public orchestrations of ressentiment.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2018
In our own time, amid what Hannah Arendt described as a “tremendous increase in mutual hatred and a somewhat universal irritability of everybody against everybody else”, this fragile self has become particularly vulnerable to ressentiment.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2016
Stephen’s ressentiment drives him to more and more desperate choices, less and less realistically, culminating in an absurd and anticlimactic trip across the country.
From New York Times ● Oct. 24, 2016
The recent explosions of ressentiment against writers and journalists as well as against politicians, technocrats, businessmen, and bankers reveal how Rousseau’s history of the human heart is still playing itself out among the disaffected.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 25, 2016
Gawker’s ressentiment is not always a virtue, and it has led it to sometimes go after people who do not deserve its scrutiny.
From Slate ● May 26, 2016
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
