Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Words

I was sitting in my chair this evening listening to music. It was Rosanne Cash's "The List," based on the list of important songs Johnny Cash wrote out for his daughter when she was 18 and revealed to him that her interest in the latest rock 'n' roll and pop had left her ignorant of the songs he revered. Rosanne Cash isn't a knock-out singer. She's good, though, and the songs are great.

But as I sometimes do, while listening to music, I reached down and grabbed the dictionary I keep on the floor and opened it at random to see what cool word I might find. And there it was - a word I've never heard of - "morganatic."

I've been learning a lot about American history lately, and this word struck a chord. It has to do with a marriage between a noble and a person of inferior rank. In such a marriage, the person of lesser rank stays at that lower status, and the offspring of the marriage do not get to inherit the estate, titles, fiefs, etc.

America never needed such a word. It did, however, need a word like "miscegenation." What an interesting little combination of words.

1 comment:

  1. It made me feel good I had to google "miscegenation" maybe that word won't make it past my generation. Or then again I might just have a lousy vocabulary. :)

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