"I said, 'I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments...'" (from Nehemiah 1:5, the Bible--NAS version)
Beseech. What comes to your mind? It sounds old-fashioned now. We would probably replace it with the word "beg".
The OED gives us an interesting glimpse into the source of this old and hallowed English word:
Beseech. BE + Middle English sechen/seken (to seek).
It would have been pronounced "be-seek" in medieval times. Over time, the "ch" changed from a hard /k/ sound to the soft /ch/ sound.
This is similar to the word church, which was originally pronounced /kirk/, but the hard /k/ gave way to a soft /ch/ sound in England. Incidentally, in Scotland, Germany, and Scandinavia it is pronounced and spelled /kirk/.
Beseech usually means to supplicate, entreat, implore, beg. The old sense of the word was to seek out, or seek about, a change in difficult times by appealing to (or be-seeking) the lord or monarch to have mercy on me.
My theory is that the word "beseech" is phasing out of use because modern or post-modern people do not like to beg for mercy. We are too independent, too proud, too enlightened to beseech anybody.
Or maybe it's because we think that nobody's worth trusting with my life, that I might appear so weak in front of them.
I personally think "beseech" should be brought back into usage. It would be a useful word to humble ourselves a little more.
What do you think? Has a word like this passed its sell-by date? Would you use it in writing or conversation? I beseech you, think about it...
1 comment:
If C heard the word even once, she would start using it. She loves to use archaic sounding words. :)
I think you are right people are not humble and do not feel the need to beg for mercy - unfortunately, bringing a word back doesn't change a mindset.
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