A word we all know, but one I haven't seen for a long time.
"The clerks within were not a whit behind-hand in their demonstrations of respect. A solemn hush prevailed, as Mr. Dombey passed through the outer office. The wit of the Counting-House became in a moment as mute, as the row of leathern fire-buckets hanging up behind him. Such vapid and flat daylight as filtered through the ground-glass windows and skylight, leaving a black sediment upon the panes, showed the books and papers, and the figures bending over them, enveloped in a studious gloom, and as much abstracted in appearance, from the world without, as if they were assembled at the bottom of the sea; while a mouldy little strong room in the obscure perspective, where a shady lamp was always burning, might have represented the cavern of some ocean-monster, looking on with a red eye at these mysteries of the deep."

"vapid id; VAY-pid, adjective:
vapidity; vapidness; noun
vapidly; adverb 1. Lacking liveliness, animation, or interest; dull: vapid conversation.
2. Lacking taste, zest, or flavor; flat: vapid beer.
Etymology: Latin vapidus flat-tasting; akin to Latin vappa vapid wine and perhaps to Latin vapor steam. Date: circa 1656