Catch-22 vocabulary

So I asked him the perennial conversation-killer -- what do you do? What's your job? I love that question for its somnolent power. It's the blanket you can throw on any verbal fire.

J. Maarten Troost. Headhunters on My Doorstep, p.212 (2013)

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It made me angry, and I glanced at Ernest. The sight of him made me doubly angry. He did not seem to resent the delicate slurs. Worse than that, he did not seem to be aware of them. There he sat, gentle, and stolid, and somnolent. He really looked stupid.

Jack London. The Iron Heel

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A lazy somnolence descended on the crowd. The negroes idled about, clearing the long tables on which the food had been laid.

Margaret Mitchell. Gone with the Wind (1936)