We turn a circle in the night and are consumed by the fire.
Happy B’day Shalini, who could never resist a palindrome. Timeous at 25, and so pivotal to my encounter with words.
perhaps some context.
There was once a word that symbolised the long arm of human destiny. It evoked the march of unfurling aeons and impetous eras; the cosmic harmony that enables all our sorry existences. In good time, all things are done.
Sophocles, long ago, heard it upon the Aegean, and it brought to his mind the turbid ebb and flow of human misery
Timeous, with the timbre to suit hefty import, was a majestic ship; leisurely in wrath and generous in her wake. She is now arch. in dictionaries, that graveyard of brave lingo. Men sank her when they dismissed things that happened in their own good time and began to expect them to happen in their good time. Substituted by her timely cousin, the word was divorced from meaning and left the quiet death of redundancy.
I was glad to have the chance to take her on a small run.
Words, used timeously, that have complementary timely and timeless import.
A Period is a connected series of events and their ultimate resolution, so far as is historically determinable. It is a full historical argument, as well as a chronological category. The Reformation is a period.
A Cycle is a series of similar periods, usually leading up to some dramatic upheaval in the society concerned. Cycles can operate both within and across periods. Their influence, similarly, can migrate outside the populations they afflict. Entire political societies experiencing the same cycle at any given date is unlikely. Cycles are the photons of time: visible only long post origin. Revolutions are a cycle in history.
An Epoch is the beginning of a period or a Life. The Epoch of Shalini began in 1985.
An Era is the outcome of interwoven cycles and periods over a defined chronology. Modernity is an era.
An Aeon is an unmeasurable length of time. Humanity is a bane for the aeons.
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A List for Today
Some European Words.
- Gotterdammerung (German): Complete destruction of an institution, regime, or order.
- Schwarmerei (German): A vague, uncertain yearning. What is in English a velleity.
- Sprezzatura (Italian): The art of doing everything gracefully and effortlessly.
- Feuilleton (French): A discursive, personal exploration of a theme. Often light-spirited, and spun around a single detail, like a piece of grit that transforms into a pearl.
- Wildwuchs (German): Wildfire growth.
- Totenfresserei (German): Feeding on the dead.