Well done on the beauty of life. Marcus Aurelius said to watch the stars and see yourself running with them. How many of us really think of the upside of life as opposed to the bad side? It is unsurprising that we have lost some of our joy in the past few years. A historical dictionary suggests that it has been this way for a long time. Our glass is usually half-empty.
Usually but not always. In recent times, I have made it my mission to highlight a category of English that is affectionately called "orphaned negatives". These are the words that lost their charm at some point in the past, becoming a sorry crew of adjectives that included unkempt, unruly, disgruntled, unwieldy and incompetent. The previous generations had the potential to be wieldy, ept, and kempt. Some were full of ruth, feck, and gorm. The time is right to get these couples back together. Mitchell airport in Milwaukee has provided its passengers with a recombobulation area in which to release some of the tension of air travel.
These negatives are not the only ones that have been lost. The German schadenfreude is all too familiar. How many of us know thatfelicity is joy in another person's happiness? As we exchange hatred on our screens, how about sharing kindness and compassion?
The dictionary tells its own story. It has hundreds of words for melancholy, from the black dog to the blue devils. We can be a lot of things, from crumpsy to nettlish, from narky to tetchy. Anyone who is looking to criticize covertly may enjoy the words "ultracrepidarian" or "cacafuego", both of which are "fire-shitters". Distinctly lacking is a synonym for love, happiness and kindness.
If we are pessimists, it has never stopped us from having a laugh. Some of the happiest words are the ones that make us smile, and often involve a bit of fun at our own expense. You never quite know what is in sausages, so they are called "bags of mystery" or "cacklefarts". The prudish Victorians knew umbrellas and handkerchiefs were called bumbershoots.
Maybe it isn't all down to our attitude. Linguists believe that the geography of a language affects its sounds. The Mediterranean's soft lilts may seem like a perfect match for its sun-drenched skies. The waterfalls and crashing pines may have led to what the 19th-century sound symbolist Charles Nodier described as our "raw and clashing vocabularies". Our thinking is just as clashing as a result.
It is true that other languages have more positive vibes than us. They have a splash of what the Italians call sprezzatura, a careless, thrown together indifference to life. Gigil from the Philippines is hard to beat for joy. It conveys the irresistible desire to squeeze something cute.
One English word stands above the rest in the dictionary. I want to bring it back, so I mention it all the time. It never really enjoyed being in the sun. The Oxford English Dictionary has just one record next to it, but its definition of despair is amazing. Recovering from despair is fresh hope. It will be its moment in May 2022.
Susie Dent is a lexicographer. Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment for Every Day of the Year is her latest book.
