What to do with the dead? A charnel house is one answer to that question. We place the remains inside stone walls and sarcophagi to rest. But the real charnel house is in our memories, where the dead live on. Our minds keep the dead alive every time we think of them, speak their name, and conjure up…
Tag: language
Otherworldly Words: Cloven
Why is the cloven hoof of such adorable animals as the deer associated with the devil? If I had to guess, I’d say it has something to do with Pan, the mischievous God of the woods. We also associate ram’s horns with the devil. We often look for symbols in nature, like the dove for…
Otherworldly Words: Bedevil
Bedevil is a word that I think is underused. Just think when your car won’t start, “My car is bedeviled!” Or, for a wicked boss: “My boss bedevils me with needless duties to make my life a living hell.” Perhaps the word is not used because, to a certain degree, it lacks seriousness. It feels…
Otherworldly Words: Banshee
I’m going to get personal for a moment. I have an ambivalent relationship with the word banshee. My partner’s younger brother, Matt, and I always watched horror movies together. I often introduced him to movies such as The Evil Dead. As he got older, he introduced me to many movies, too. One of our favorites…
Otherworldly Words: Baleful
Baleful derives from a word meaning pain. Interestingly, most cultures and languages, including English, are dominated by words to express feelings and thoughts like baleful, or negative emotions over positive ones. You know how they say, it takes 20 compliments to make up for an insult. Unfortunately, the compliments can start sounding rather identical while the…
Otherworldly Words: Amaranthine
I’ll admit it: I’m a word snob. I like some words just because I like the way they sound. Amaranthine is one of those words, because I think its sound matches its meaning. Just say it….Amaranthine…Does it make you feel like you’re floating in an endless sea or cloud? Have a favorite word you just love to…
Otherworldly Words: Abhorrence
What leads us to abhor something? I think our fears inform the things we hate and detest. And, I think some of the things we fear the most are the traits we abhor in ourselves. No one likes to see himself in a dark reflection. We know all too well what Nietzsche so succinctly said:…
Otherworldly Words: Aberration
For October I unveil a daily dose of the unusual, the dark, the bizarre on a linguistic journey through words befitting the season. Join me as we explore Otherworldly Words − words that help us express the frightening matters that often are hard to explain. I start…
Exploring wolf references: Fear makes the wolf bigger…
“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” This German proverb makes use of the wolf as metaphor for anything we anticipate, making worse than the actuality. Imagine a wolf howling in the night; we fear it even from a long distance when it poses no threat. Humans have a long and sordid history with…
Exploring wolf references: Run with the wolves
“Run with the wolves” has different meanings based on the context. In the context of the phrase: “If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl”, it is closely associated with a similar phrase, “You can tell a person by his friends/the company he keeps.” The idea is you will behave like “the pack”…
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