Gosh, this is a real horror. Dirge. You can tell it's something boring and gloomy even if you haven't come across the word before.
A dirge is an unhappy song about someone who has died. Imagine the sound made by a resentful lawnmower, and you'll have the idea.
Word Not To Use Today: dirge. This word is a shortened form of the Latin word dirīgē. Dirīgē means direct [us].
Direct us is nothing at all to do with the meaning of the word dirge, of course, but dirīgē is the first word of one of the Latin prayers for the dead.
And hardly anyone has ever understood Latin prayers.
Direct us is nothing at all to do with the meaning of the word dirge, of course, but dirīgē is the first word of one of the Latin prayers for the dead.
And hardly anyone has ever understood Latin prayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are very welcome, but please make them suitable for The Word Den's family audience.