Word of the Day
More about skerrick
Skerrick, “a small piece or quantity; a bit,” used in the negative, as in “Not a skerrick of work got done,” is a slang term used nowadays mostly in Australia and New Zealand. Skerrick originated in Great Britain in the early 1820s as a slang term for halfpenny. As with most slang terms, the origin of skerrick is obscure: it may be a variant of scuddick, which also dates from the early 1820s, means the same thing as skerrick, and has an equally obscure etymology.
how is skerrick used?
Stuck awkwardly amongst straggly olive trees on the high side of the road winding up from the village to the crest above the sea, the house had not a skerrick of charm.
With the Prime Minister last week announcing a four-phase reopening scheme to bring Australia back to normality, a skerrick of hope has blossomed in many hearts. Finally, there is a path forward.
saudade
noun
a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent.
More about saudade
Portuguese saudade ultimately derives from Latin sōlitāt-, the stem of sōlitās “loneliness, solitude.” (Latin –l– between vowels is lost in Portuguese; Latin –t– between vowels becomes –d– in Portuguese and Spanish.) The original Old Portuguese form soidade was altered to saudade under the influence of the verb saudar “to salute, greet” (from Latin salūtāre “to keep safe, pay one’s respects”). Saudade entered English in the 20th century.
how is saudade used?
“Saudade is a bittersweet feeling of longing for a loved person or a place that is gone,” I finally said, as melancholic memories of my beloved ones forcefully surfaced in my mind. “Some people translate it as the love that remains. It is painful, yet you yearn for it because you only feel saudade when you deeply love.”
Many vibes don’t have specific names, but some do. Saudade, the Portuguese word for a bittersweet longing, could count as a vibe.
hegira
noun
any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place.
More about hegira
Hegira, “a flight to a more desirable or safer place,” comes from Medieval Latin hegira, a Latinization of Arabic hijrah “emigration, flight, departure,” a derivative of the verb hajara “he departed.” Hijrah specifically refers to the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution in July c.e. 622. The Arabic form hijrah (more fully al hijrat) for Muslims marks the beginning of the Muslim Era. Hegira entered English in the late 16th century; the spelling hijra in the late 19th.
how is hegira used?
After The San Francisco News assigned [John] Steinbeck to write a series about the pathetic living conditions of the Dust Bowl refugees in California’s San Joaquin Valley, he actively began The Grapes of Wrath, his touching 1939 novel about the hegira of these Oklahoma sharecroppers.