Can it be time for Word of the Day AGAIN? You bet!

ressentiment

PRONUNCIATION:

(ruh-san-tee-MAH)

[the final syllable is nasal]

MEANING:

noun: A feeling of resentment and hostility accompanied by the lack of means to express or act upon it.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French ressentiment, from ressentir (to feel strongly), from sentir, from Latin sentire (to feel). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sent- (to head for or to go), that is also the source for send, scent, sense, sentence, assent, and consent.

USAGE:

"It is fair enough to say that the Cmmdr is a representative pedestrian performer seething with ressentiment."

Robert Alter; The Tunnel; The New Republic (Washington, DC); Mar 27, 1995.