137. Jejune

Emily and Kyle dig into a word which is anything but lacking. Both their appetites and their minds will be well sated by this exploration of the word jejune.

Examining this word’s earliest roots, our hosts chat about sacrifice in Ancient Rome, a fasting ritual inherited from Ancient Greece, and what is certainly the best synonym for breakfast. And, speaking of mealtime, jejune shows its versatility in describing all kinds of emptiness, whether a metaphorical feeling in your gut, or a medical term describing digestion.

But even still, Kyle is hungry for more, and Emily provides! They discuss artistic works that leave a little to be desired, some hidden definitions of the words frothy and dangerous, and a mistakenly juvenile connection to jejune. To close out, they reveal that we might all be naive to some words’ oldest definitions.