Wie geht’s Jungs! Or, how’s it going guys? And welcome to another round of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Today, we’re going on a trip to the woods, to connect with nature and become one with ourselves, et cetera, et cetera. Join us, for today’s word is: Waldeinsamkeit.

Waldeinsamkeit is a German word meaning ‘the feeling of solitude in the woods’. It is made of the German words ‘wald’ meaning ‘forest’ and ‘einsamkeit’ meaning’ loneliness; thus, ‘forest-loneliness’. The word ‘wald’ comes from Middle High German ‘walt’, from Old High German ‘wald’, which is from the Proto-Germanic ‘walþuz’. It can be related to the Dutch ‘woud’, Old English ‘weald’, and the Old Norse ‘vǫllr’. The word ‘einsam’, meaning ‘lonely’, is made up of the German words ‘ein’ meaning ‘one’ and the suffix ‘sam’ which is used to form adjectives from verbs, nouns and other adjectives. For example, ‘slowly’ in German is ‘langsam’ which comes from ‘lang’ meaning long, and literally translates to ‘long-ly’, which honestly, just makes a lot of sense. The suffix ‘sam’ comes from the Old High German samo, meaning ‘the same’, and also ‘sama’ meaning ‘similarly’. It is comparable to the English suffix ‘some’, as in ‘lonesome’.

A related word, ‘zweisamkeit’ means ‘togetherness’ or ‘intimacy between two persons, most often romantic’. This word comes from the word ‘einsamkeit’ but replaces ‘ein’ meaning ‘one’ with ‘zwei’ meaning ‘two’. Sort of romantic if you think about it! ‘Twoliness’...maybe we’ll stick to German.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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