Jejunities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A state characterized by being barren or lacking in substance, especially regarding ideas or emotions
2. representing a condition of emptiness or insignificance in thought or discourse
3. indicating an absence of nourishment or richness, often leading to superficiality or triviality in context

Etymology: "Jejunities" is the plural of "jejunity," a noun meaning dull, empty ideas. The base word is "jejune," which came into English from Latin "jejunus," meaning empty or hungry, and originally described an empty stomach or an unproductive, barren state. English speakers then extended that sense of emptiness from the body to the mind, so that a jejune thought or argument is one with nothing in it. The ending "-ity" is a common English suffix, borrowed from Latin "-itas" through French, that turns an adjective into a noun naming a quality. "Jejunity" thus names the quality of being jejune, and its plural "jejunities" refers to individual instances of such empty, unsatisfying ideas.