Even in the warm climate of central Texas January is a fallow time. Wildflowers are few and bare trees many. So say I, so said the winter woods at Mills Pond on January 19th. Mostly unperturbed was a white egret.
© 2022 Steven Schwartzman
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Some thoughts on -some.
A story I read on January 22 describing a legal ruling upholding free speech surprised me by mentioning that the Florida judge had used the German phrase vorauseilender Gehorsam, meaning 'pre-emptive subservience.' The second German word ends with the adjective-creating suffix -sam, which corresponds to the cognate -some in English. Some examples of adjectives ending in -some are wholesome, handsome, winsome, cuddlesome, frolicsome, and awesome. Those are positive, but when I looked at a list of adjectives ending in -some I couldn't help noticing that a preponderance of the commonly used ones are negative: worrisome, cumbersome, burdensome, gruesome, tiresome, troublesome, bothersome, meddlesome, quarrelsome, loathsome, noisome, wearisome, lonesome, nettlesome, irksome, fearsome, fulsome, toilsome.
English used to have a lot more adjectives formed with -some, most of which have fallen out of use or are at best archaic. One was hearsome, which matches up with German Gehorsam and used to have the same meaning, 'obedient' (compare how "Listen to me" can still mean "Do what I'm telling you"). Alongside toothsome, which has survived, we used to have eyesome, meaning 'pleasant to the eye' (compare the modern eye candy). Maybe I should start calling my photographs eyesome.
If you want more than just some -some words, you can check out a big list of them. Just be aware that some of those words have a final -some from a different source, like chromosome (which leaves open the possibility of describing something with a lot of chromosomes as chromosomesome).
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