AWRY
Wild Word Friday!
An interesting word, AWRY. To me it seems old fashioned. How often have you heard anyone say that something is AWRY? Actually, the only person I’ve heard use that word lately is my 91-year-old father-in-law, but, old fashioned or not, I think it’s a great word and worthy of use.
And, by the way, it is definitely old. With roots that go back thousands of years to that lost-in-the-mists ancestor language of most European languages – Indo-European – AWRY seems to have its inception in the prefix, wreik-, which means twisted or turned. I found a Gothic word, wraiqs – crooked – which also seems to be related, but I can’t find confirmation of that in any reference books, so it’s just a guess on my part.
AWRY also appears to be a “second-cousin-once-removed” to a Latin word, rica, referring to a head veil or head covering. I don’t know about the women in your family, but my bridal experience let me know that a veil can become a wreik-rica very quickly and unexpectedly!
In the general scheme of things, I’d say that AWRY definitely deserves an exulted antique status! Let’s dust AWRY off and display it proudly.
Blessings!
Sue
I enjoy your wild word Fridays. I had a good one this week when my son(age 28) called to ask me what a “nosegay” was. He was reading a book to his 4month old daughter and it had this word in it. He had never ever heard of it and when I explained to him that it was a small bouquet of flowers, he was incredulous that they would name it that. I guess being a man, he had never read any books using that term.
Nosegay is a great Wild Word, Jane. That will have to be one of our Fridays in the next month or so, for sure!