"You cannot permanently besmirch a work of art. Time is sure to rub off the stain."
--The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 14, 1881
BESMIRCH is defined by the OED... to soil, discolour, as with smoke, soot, or mud; also figuratively to sully, dim the lustre of.
BE (about, make) + smirch (a dirty mark or smear), possibly from Old French esmorcher, to torture with hot metal.
This word, unlike betray, is another quickly passing out of usage. It sounds even more anachronistic than beseech. It is probably too late to bring this one back, but before we bury the word perhaps it would be worth recognizing what part this word has played in our English language.
For, in a sense, no word ever came into being that did not have some necessary thought to incarnate. Every new word is coined to describe something and nail down its meaning, or provide a parallel description, like synonyms. Consider the word "blog"; It began a few years ago as "weblog" to describe an interactive website for posting information, similar to a ship's log. Weblog was abbreviated to 'blog, and for most people they are quite unaware of its source word.
So words are coined, like so much golden currency, passing through mouths not hands, down through decades and centuries until the words have been worn smooth and meaningless.
Such is the case with besmirch. Its unique offering of meaning, I think, is the idea of ruining something in a way that cannot be reversed, and provokes a sense of moral indignation. I find the possible connection with torture interesting. Something like what Sauron (in the Lord of the Rings) did to elves in ancient times to create orcs. Do you get a sense of what I mean? Something beautiful or noble, hopelessly ruined or perverted. By the 1800's I think the word referred mostly to a family's honor or reputation being soiled.
How else would be say this in a word, if not besmirch? have we replaced it with a more modern synonym?
2 comments:
I hope this doesn't sound too weird or out there but several things in this post and your other posts came together with that lovely click that happens for global thinkers.
besmirched We are God's work of art - we are soiled and stained by sin and that stain is like a great sorrow to God - a pain so great it is like torture with hot metal.
beseech Some of us live our entire lives with these marks on our lives and feel it is normal and never feel the pain of it. Others of us begin to feel the pain of our separation and it is painful to know that we are dirty and sullied and thus separated from Go and so we beseech Him to forgive us, cleanse us, and reunite us with Him.
begotten In the end, it takes the blood of Christ, God's only begotten Son, to rub away that stain and cleanse us again. However, we will stain ourselves again and again and need to ask over and over to be covered in His.
However, the wisdom of the Daily Telegraph is true - one day eternity is come and the stain is permanently rubbed out and forgotten.
beside And the beautiful thing is that instead of walking behind us and pushing us or walking ahead of us and perhaps going too fast or losing us - God walks beside us.
Thank you... this completes the thought that needed to be expressed. How very like a chain, a necklace of meaning, that curves around us in a circuit of truth. How wonderful.
I was thinking too that all these are experiences which define being human; yet before any of these existed, before we existed, God be. Before all things, God was. And as Jesus responded to the Pharisees whose thinking was man-centered, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Or as the Lord God spoke to Moses in that bush on fire, unburned, "I am who I am".
Because He is before, we begin. And in Him are all the beginnings.
We praise You, Father, for this reality we can taste.
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