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Word For Depression Resulting From Awe

English Language & Usage Asked by auerbachb on December 25, 2020

Is there a native English word (or borrowed word, or word in another language for that matter) meaning:

A depression resulting from the insight that I will not understand many things.

Example Usage awe-based-depression:

"Upon reading through his classmate’s mathematical proof, the profound beauty of the thought process revealed left him with a sense of awe-based-depression."

"After a year of study in medicine she felt a sense of awe-based-depression at the unfathomable complexity of the biochemistry of life."

3 Answers

I don't think there is.

The closest word that I can think of is the word sublime. This is the emotion felt by someone confronted by something that is awesome, that is of great aesthetic, intellectual or moral value. The person is carried away onto another and higher plane of existence and feels exalted.

Answered by Mozibur Ullah on December 25, 2020

The noun inadequacy and its adjective inadequate are used in the context that you define.

"Upon reading through his classmate's mathematical proof, the profound beauty of the thought process revealed left him with a sense of inadequacy."

inadequacy = the quality or state of being inadequate

Merriam Webster

There are many examples of usage online. I only quote one chosen to illustrate the association of inadequacy with the drawing an unflattering comparison of oneself with others:

No one knows the full extent of someone else’s life, experiences, thoughts, issues, or other events playing out behind the scenes. Comparing your life story to someone else’s highlight reel is not healthy and can create warped and often unjustified feelings of inadequacy.

Betterhelp

Answered by Anton on December 25, 2020

There is "deflation"

OED

To deflate:

2. a. intransitive. To ‘climb down’; to lose spirit, confidence, etc.

1933 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 772 ‘Mr. Garnett’ said the village postman importantly ‘is gone to Spain.’ ‘Mr. Garnett is unfortunate’ I replied..and the postman deflated.

1960 L. Wright Clean & Decent 264 We may or may not deflate when a statistician tells us that of our neighbours on a London bus today, one in five never takes a bath.

And from this there is the noun "deflation" in the senses "of the loss of spirit, confidence, etc.**

1944 H. G. Wells '42 to '44 157 Maybe his mental trouble is not hopeless. He may be cured by his deflation.

1958 G. J. Warnock Eng. Philos. since 1900 xiii. 173 The contemporary philosopher's eye is characteristically cold and his pen, perhaps, apt to be employed as an instrument of deflation.

And thus

"Upon reading through his classmate's mathematical proof, the profound beauty of the thought process revealed left him with a sense of deflation."

Answered by Greybeard on December 25, 2020

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