Dear Neologist:
I am giving a midterm this week, and apparently a significant percentage of my students either require spoon feeding or constant reassurance that they are en route to a good grade. At present, when I look at my inbox and see the messages waiting for me, my heart begins to sink. Can you give me a word to describe the feeling for when you know you are about to be incredibly irritated by someone or something? (And will have to be gracious and kind in response to boot!)
Thanks ever so,
Ennui-filled in Education
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Dear Ennui-filled,
Your students are triggering in you a condition common among those engaged in professions that necessitate frequent contact with large, mostly unscreened population samples. As the director of the St. Elderwart's Hospital for the Annoyingly Infirm wisely remarked "This would be a sweet gig if I didn't have to deal with all these damn patients every day." The feeling you are experiencing is:
Höflichkeitsgehemmter Vorzorn
m, hoif'-lick-kites-guh-ham'-tear fore'-tsorn
(anticipatory wrath held in check by manners)
It takes a person of life-tempered optimism and emotional endurance to keep in check one's natural tendency to rebuke and reform. Even if it is done in the hope of bringing your students closer to the radiant level of humanity embodied by a more refined soul such as yourself, those in the process of being thus elevated tend to be a bit miffed about the whole thing, unaware as they are of their current shortcomings.
Kudos for accepting a certain level of personal discomfort so as to create in your class a spirit of acceptance and nurture, reluctant though it may be.
The Neologist
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