A is for Angst

Books need to be reviewed, the garden needs sorting out, I am attempting to erase my old computer to return it for recycling but April is upon us and with it the annual Blogging From A to Z Challenge. I dithered (as usual) but thought it might help bring back my blogging mojo, and just my general getting-stuff-done mojo, so decided to join in. I was inspired by an article in the Grauniad about new words from Japanese that have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary and decided to write about borrow words, that have come to english from another language. In Japanese they have a whole other syllabary for words that they use from other languages. Here in Britain we mostly remain in blissful ignorance that we have pinched our vocabulary from elsewhere, and there is a lot of it so I am just going to pick out some of my favourites.

 

A is for Angst, coming from variously German, Dutch, Danish and Norwegian, and meaning fear and anxiety. It also means something more specific, within Existentialist philosophy, as in the expression 'existential angst', a deep seated grasp of the terror and the nature of human existence. I tend to experience it as a conflict between the meaning and the meaninglessness of life ... fortunately I tend to come down on the side of meaning and it allows me to continue on contentedly through my days. So there's a cheery start to the month. 

Good luck to everyone joining in. Please pop over to the A to Z Challenge to find out what other people are writing about (there should be a link to a list of participants some time soon).