I'm Minion Fogarty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today, we'll talk about a word that describes how a lot of people might be feeling while

they're staying at home.

And we'll talk about when you use hyphens and even an occasional apostrophe in the phrase,

thank you.

With some communities in rebooted lockdown conditions and movement restricted everywhere

else, no one is posting pictures of their sourdough.

Zoom cocktail parties have lost their novelty, Netflix can only release so many new series.

The news seems worse every day yet we compulsively scroll through it.

We get distracted by social media yet have a pile of books unread.

We keep meaning to go outside but somehow never find the time.

We are bored, listless, afraid, and uncertain.

What is this feeling?

Well, John Cassian, a monk in Theologian wrote in the early 5th century about an ancient

Greek emotion called acedia.

A mind seized by this emotion is, quote, horrified at where he is, disgusted with his room.

It does not allow him to stay still in his cell or to devote any effort to reading, unquote.

He feels, quote, such bodily listlessness and yawning hunger as though he were worn by

a long journey or a prolonged fast.

Next he glances about in size that no one is coming to see him.

Constantly in and out of his cell he looks at the sun as if it were too slow in setting,

...