Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

I promised her that I would never use it when speaking to her. I got to wondering, though, from whence did the word come.

Shakespeare used it in lamenting about Yorick -- so, the word was in use since at least the time I was in ninth grade. That's when we read the play; and if getting a play published is anything like getting a book or story published today, Shakespeare must have written the story some time before we read it. I'm surprised the guy got the book published at all, what with needing more fucking footnotes to understand it than a Supreme Court opinion.

I looked the word up. It's an interjection, according to Webster, "an exclamation expressive of sorrow, pity, or apprehension of evil"

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, says much the same thing, especially, that "apprehension of danger or evil" part of the definition. Of course, that's why the guy holding Yorick's skull said it. There was evil portent in that skull. Same as the witches in that other play by the same guy.

The etymology of the word -- or is it "entomology," I can never remember -- one has to do with words and one has to do with bugs -- whichever one it is, now you know what I mean --

Anyway, the origin of the word, "alas," an old English word, is apparently from the French word, helas, meaning "ah, miserable," which doesn't sound anything like Les Miserables, but which comes from the Latin lassus, meaning weary. I think there is a Greek word, lass, which is kind of the same as Latin, but only further over on the map, which means something like "lazy."

Well, that doesn't tell us much about "alas." I don't get the "evil" part of the usage. Just where does that come in?

If I say, e.g. (that means "for example," which is not really the same as "i.e.," which means, "that is," although some people don't know the difference -- more Latin crap or Greek shit -- whatever -- alas, it's the "e" that is confusing), "I wanted to buy the movie, The Little Mermaid, but, alas, it is now out of print until the year 2016," there's nothing evil about that. I am just lamenting the fact that Disney plays that "back in the Disney vault" game just to fu... well, wait ... that mermaid movie is the movie with the male sex organ drawn on the cover of the DVD case -- so, maybe there is some "evil" there.

I can see how this whole "alas" thing can get a little unnerving, not knowing if the speaker has a fear of something evil or is just sorrowful -- or pitiful.