"To Britaigne tooke they the righte way Aurelius and this magician bisyde."
--Chaucer, The Franklin's Tale
BESIDE is, no surprise, defined mainly as "by the side of something." A related word is besides which has a slightly different meaning.
In Old English it was always 2 words separate: be (by, about) + sidan (side). No great mystery here. The word has kept the same meaning for over 1200 years, and looks to be useful for a few hundred more.
Beside is such a basic, functional word; not really pretty or picturesque. Yet it communicates awareness of our surroundings. The following words over the next few days all tell about the relationship between two things. It may seem elementary, my dear Watson, but it is not. There is once again reality and truth to discover as we spend some time enjoying our language.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Besmirch
"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?
--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?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Betray
"Yet she must dye, else shee'l betray more men."
--Othello, Act V
From the OED...
Betray. BE + traien (from Latin tradere, to deliver or hand over).
1. To give up to, or place in the power of an enemy, by treachery or disloyalty.
2. To disclose, reveal, or show incidentally.
Few words pack power in them like this one. A friend can betray you like no other. Enemies do not betray enemies. A movie that illustrates this so well is the scene in Braveheart where William Wallace fights against a visored knight who, it turns out, is his ally Robert the Bruce. More tragic is the intimacy Jesus of Nazareth shared with twelve disciples for three years, only to be betrayed by Judas who had personally experienced Jesus' love, companionship, and teaching.
Then I'm thinking about how people in the West (N. America, Europe) feel betrayed in the age we live in. People sometimes feel betrayed by their government, their church, their society. Possibly even the technology we use. I wonder what is the common thread between all these... and I think it is expectation. When we expect a good thing from an institution or person, and are surprised by the opposite, we may feel abandoned and disillusioned by them.
On the other hand, why would we betray someone else? There must always be a betrayer. I think marriages are an easy example. A husband who has an affair and betrays his wife easily justifies his adultery on the grounds that his wife wasn't fulfilling him. She didn't meet his expectations. How easy betrayal becomes when we decorate it with reason.
An interesting thought that I'm considering... is that Jesus knew Judas would betray him, and hand him over to be arrested & crucified. Mark 14:18 clearly records that Jesus had foreknowledge this would happen.
Is the betrayal any less painful if you know it will happen? Is Jesus unique in his attitude?
--Othello, Act V
From the OED...
Betray. BE + traien (from Latin tradere, to deliver or hand over).
1. To give up to, or place in the power of an enemy, by treachery or disloyalty.
2. To disclose, reveal, or show incidentally.
Few words pack power in them like this one. A friend can betray you like no other. Enemies do not betray enemies. A movie that illustrates this so well is the scene in Braveheart where William Wallace fights against a visored knight who, it turns out, is his ally Robert the Bruce. More tragic is the intimacy Jesus of Nazareth shared with twelve disciples for three years, only to be betrayed by Judas who had personally experienced Jesus' love, companionship, and teaching.
Then I'm thinking about how people in the West (N. America, Europe) feel betrayed in the age we live in. People sometimes feel betrayed by their government, their church, their society. Possibly even the technology we use. I wonder what is the common thread between all these... and I think it is expectation. When we expect a good thing from an institution or person, and are surprised by the opposite, we may feel abandoned and disillusioned by them.
On the other hand, why would we betray someone else? There must always be a betrayer. I think marriages are an easy example. A husband who has an affair and betrays his wife easily justifies his adultery on the grounds that his wife wasn't fulfilling him. She didn't meet his expectations. How easy betrayal becomes when we decorate it with reason.
An interesting thought that I'm considering... is that Jesus knew Judas would betray him, and hand him over to be arrested & crucified. Mark 14:18 clearly records that Jesus had foreknowledge this would happen.
Is the betrayal any less painful if you know it will happen? Is Jesus unique in his attitude?
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Beseech
"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...
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...
Monday, August 4, 2008
Believe
We use this word a lot these days.
Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary defines believe like this:
to have a firm religious faith; to accept as true, genuine, or real.
My Oxford English Dictionary takes us back to ancient times and the beginnings of this word.
—
Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary defines believe like this:
to have a firm religious faith; to accept as true, genuine, or real.
My Oxford English Dictionary takes us back to ancient times and the beginnings of this word.
BELIEVE is composed of two parts: be (=about) + lieve (=to hold dear, think highly of). This root lieve comes from Old German, probably Anglian (the Anglo in Anglo-Saxon). The original form was probably gilauben/geliefen, which also developed into the modern German glauben (to believe). The even earlier Teutonic root (which most Northern European languages come from)was lubh... the word for love! (see "liebe" in German, "lief" in Dutch, and Любовь in Russian (lyoobov).
So basically our word believe comes from this sense of loving something which is valuable to you. The be- prefix didn't get added on until the late Middle Ages... so for a long time people would just say " I LEVE" to mean "I believe". From this we still have the word "lief" in stories, such as in the following example:
"If I have a choice, I'd as lief be killed by an atom bomb as by a hand grenade or a flame thrower." Katherine Anne Porter; The Future is Now; The Days Before; New York, Harcourt, Brace; 1952.
The only reason we spell our word "B E L I E V E" is because of a mispelling in the 17th century which became popular. Before then it was spelled beleeve, as Shakespeare wrote in Measure for Measure, III, ii, 27: "I beleeue I know the cause."
I think it's cool that the word believe really meant to hold something very dear, with all your heart. Nowadays people seem to believe pretty loosely. As an example, we need a stronger sense of "be-lief-ing" in our Creator.
Tune in tomorrow for a new twist on another old word!
—
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Words are Time Machines
Our English language is not only changing year by year (i.e. "plutoed" & "My bad!"), but is also a treasury of the past, affording us a glimpse into cultures now vanished. Words are time machines.
Our language is filled with words which date back over a thousand years to the early beginnings of English as an Anglo-Saxon language (basically Germanic). Quite a number of these words have survived the past millennium only to be discarded recently or dropped out of speech while remaining in "book-English".
I'd like to take you on a tour of one group of ancient English words with the prefix "be". I will list them below, and do a post on each one, sharing the original sense of the word before it became part of today's speech. Check back each day and I should have up a new word.
believe
beseech
betray
besmirch
beside
beforebeneath
behind
below
between
betwixt
belittle
beyond
behoove
belongberate
belabor
behest
become
beset
belie
bemoan
begin
behave
befuddle
begotten
bereft
behold
beware
beshrew (just for fun)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Ending and Sending
This warm and bursty month of June
When the apple trees have lost their blossoms,
My children running through the sprinkler,
I stand with feelings, mixed by endings.
Glad for summer season's starting,
Escape of students from study, study
To play and camp and soak up the sun...
But see it from the other side,
A classroom bare, silent, hollow
Without the energy of kids to fill it.
Bittersweet for me, a teacher, left
Somewhat empty till September;
Gone the twenty-one I got to know
And mourn a little with their going.
Yet the Lord of time has blessed it so...
I cannot teach them all forever;
That belongs to Him alone.
He offers rest for me, sore needed,
To enter pasture, be renewed,
Not empty from my students' absence
But filled with peace by He who sends
Them out and sends me in
Preparing for another orchard
Of young minds to cultivate and train.
When the apple trees have lost their blossoms,
My children running through the sprinkler,
I stand with feelings, mixed by endings.
Glad for summer season's starting,
Escape of students from study, study
To play and camp and soak up the sun...
But see it from the other side,
A classroom bare, silent, hollow
Without the energy of kids to fill it.
Bittersweet for me, a teacher, left
Somewhat empty till September;
Gone the twenty-one I got to know
And mourn a little with their going.
Yet the Lord of time has blessed it so...
I cannot teach them all forever;
That belongs to Him alone.
He offers rest for me, sore needed,
To enter pasture, be renewed,
Not empty from my students' absence
But filled with peace by He who sends
Them out and sends me in
Preparing for another orchard
Of young minds to cultivate and train.
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