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Sunday 17 June 2012

Sunday Rest: Word Not To Use Today: gaunt.

Here we are, misery, despair and hunger all in five letters: gaunt.

I suppose it's quite clever having one word for tall, unhealthily thin, drawn, and really rather scary.

Yes, gaunt is such a croaking sort of a word that you can hear the black wings of death approaching as you say it, see the rain-bruised cloud reaching out to smother the miserable ruins that top the crag, feel the charnel-house shiver of gathering doom, and smell the decay of each struggling hope.

Er...

...or is that just me?

Well, I wouldn't risk it, if I were you.

Word Not To Use Today: gaunt. This word arrived in the English language in the 1400s, probably from Scandinavia, because there's a Norwegian dialect word gand which means tall thin person.



1 comment:

  1. Not just you! I love this word I must say and you give such a good description of it I like it even more now!Will not avoid it at all but REVEL in all its possibilities.

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