“Two Words” / A Memorable Fancy #145

[“Have we really fathomed how grief and melancholy line the underside of our languages?” – Julia Kristeva]

Even our nouns tell of grief. This one, from a foreign tongue, means “death.” It’s the last thing the invaders left us, aside from raped wives and bastard children. And this other word, home-grown, means “despair.” We speak it often.