In the late 16th century, the word “anomy” was used to refer to the state of being without law or order, especially in the sense of the natural world. It comes from the Greek “ánomos,” meaning “lawless” — the direct opposite, “nómos,” means “custom, convention, law.” In the 1930s, the word, now spelled “anomie,” received new life from French philosophers. Translated from French, Jean-Marie Guyua wrote: “It is the absence of fixed law, which can fall under the term anomie in order to oppose it to the autonomy of the Kantians.” The secondary usage that came from these philosophers was a more personal type of anomie — a feeling of unrest or uncertainty, coming from a lack of purpose in life.