The first recorded use of the word “boredom” was only 160 years ago.

It’s unlikely that you’re unfamiliar with boredom. There’s a pretty good chance that your present visit to this site is an attempt to stave it off. But unlike many words that date back centuries, the word “boredom” has only been around since Charles Dickens put it on paper. 

In Dickens’ novel Bleak House, written in 1852, the word appears six times, which is the earliest instance it can be seen. The word did, however, stem from the expression “to be a bore,” which has been used to mean “to be tiresome or dull” since at least 1768. 

Because the suffix “-dom” is added on to the root “bore,” we know the concept attached to boredom is something that’s been around for a while. So Dickens by no means invented the definition of boredom, just as the first person to say “martyrdom” didn’t invent the martyr. Dickens is simply the first known man to say the term we now associate with the feeling that’s existed forever. 

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