Blimey! So late with this, it almost became “word of tomorrow morning”! It’ll be a fairly quick effort but hopefully it will still entertain and amuse. The halcyon (pronounced hal-see-on) was a mythical bird, believed these days to be a Kingfisher. The word originates from the Latin Alcyone. In Greek legend, the ruler of the winds, Aeolus, had a daughter – Alcyone – who was married to the Thessalonian king, Ceyx. When Ceyx was killed in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the water in her grief. Seeing their sorrow, the gods turned them into halcyon birds. Why the gods couldn’t have turned them into something more practical, like seals, is unrecorded. The story goes on to tell that when Alcyone nested by the sea, the waves threatened to destroy it, along with her eggs. Aeolus saw this and made the seas calm whilst she laid her eggs and hatched her chicks. This period passed into history as the “Halcyon Days”.
The halcyon days are recorded as being a week before and a week after the Winter Solstice, occurring around the shortest day of the year (21 or 22 December in the Northern hemisphere) , the astronomical beginning of winter. The observant among you will be saying “hang on! Birds don’t nest and raise their young in winter” – and you’d be right. It’s not entirely clear why any bird would do this, but then it’s only a legend after all. So, from the legendary meaning of halcyon comes halcyon days, a period where no storms occur at sea, a calm and peaceful time. The phrase is most often used now to recall the golden days of youth, or perhaps a time when things were more simple and life was long and carefree – something I think is summed up well in this excerpt from a Walt Whitman poem, “Leaves of Grass”:
As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame, like freshier, balmier air,
As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangs really finish’d and indolent-ripe on the tree,
Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
The brooding and blissful halcyon days!
Such an effort (in English, or should I say Engrish) would have taken a lot of my precious time. Ah… the blissful halcyon days, when blogging was an unknown to me word… But it is entertaining and amusing, and certainly not a waste of time. What about you, Tom Joad, how do you find it so far?
Thank you Minky – I’m glad my efforts are not in vain. I thought I knew a lot about words when I began this little effort. What a lot I’ve learned. I had no idea the Greeks had so much input into the English language for a start! I presumed that it would be mainly Norse and French – although I know that often French = Latin = Greek. It’s great fun. Halcyon days for me
Obviously, no effort is vain. I’m sleepless ever since I started messing with all this but I’ve also learned a lot and right here, I’ve learned many “words I never knew I didn’t know” (Tippler dixit).
I’m sure you know that the verb ending “izo” (ίζω) is yet another Greek input. So… to “ise” or not to “ize”, that is my question.
Definitely to “ize”. This is often thought of as an Americanism, but they are correct (in this instance, their policy on “thru” and “color” I still take issue with!). The Oxford English Dictionary itself stresses the use of “ize” as correct. My problem has been trying to “unlearn” my schooling, which taught “ise” as standard. It’s trickier than you might suspect.
Don’t you mean “…thought of as an Americanism, but they are incorrect”???
Often wondered about ‘halcyon days’. Never looked it up. Most enlightening, ta.
Except Chelsea didn’t have one yesterday…
Mon – Hmmm. I should have said “thought of as an Americanism, but the Americans are correct” or “people often think of it as an Americanism but they are incorrect”. You are right to criticize (see what I did there?)
Tip – glad to be of service. As for Sunday’s debacle, I think I will rest in keeping with the theme of words when I say that the arbitrator (whose parents’ marital status at the time of his birth is debatable) did nothing to facilitate our task – particularly the erroneous ejection of one of our squad members.
A non-Americanism? But correct!!
A funny thing, Mon. Try looking up the word “criticise” in the Oxford Dictionary. I looked in the online version and it comes up “not found”. “Criticize”, however, pops up first time. If it’s good enough for the OED…