億劫(おっくう)

億劫(おっくう) describes a task that feels like more effort than one can face — not that it is difficult, but that getting started is unappealing. The person who feels this way is the topic; what feels burdensome is marked with が, usually a nominalized clause ending in の.

USAGE:

• 〜するのが億劫(おっくう)だ (it's bothersome to do 〜)
• 億劫(おっくう)に思(おも)う (to find something tiresome)
• 億劫(おっくう)になる (to come to feel like too much effort)
• As a na-adjective it also modifies nouns directly (億劫(おっくう)な仕事(しごと)), though the predicate use is far more common.

NUANCE:
Expresses 'I know I should do this, but I really don't want to make the effort.' It is about lacking motivation, not about being unable — and it is a statement of one's own feeling, so it is rarely used to describe someone else.

COMMON CONTEXTS:

• 外出(がいしゅつ)が億劫(おっくう) (going out is a bother)
• 料理(りょうり)が億劫(おっくう) (cooking is tedious)
• 掃除(そうじ)が億劫(おっくう) (cleaning is tiresome)

ETYMOLOGY:
Originally a Buddhist term meaning 'one hundred million kalpas,' an inconceivably long stretch of time — hence something that feels as though it would take forever to get through.

RELATED WORDS:

• 面倒(めんどう) (troublesome — about the task itself being fiddly, rather than about one's own reluctance)
• 面倒臭(めんどうくさ)い (a blunter, more colloquial version of the same complaint)