Monday, May 03, 2010

Sunbeams



Though the period of European history from the 5th to the 11th century is often called the Dark Ages, writers and scholars of the time in fact did much to preserve and extend the light of civilization. A minor but felicitous contribution to the English language from this period is the word sunbeam, which is believed to have entered English in the 9th century through the work of Alfred the Great. A scholar as well as a king, Alfred undertook and oversaw the translation of a number of Latin works into the English of his time, now known as Old English. Among these was The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, a work composed by the Venerable Bede. The Latin phrase columna lcis, which we would today translate as "a column of light," occurs several times in this work. Since the Old English translator did not have the word column in his vocabulary, he used bam, which meant "a tree" or "a building post made from a tree" (our modern word beam). Columna lcis thus became sunnebem, or "sun post," which survives as our sunbeam. Though perhaps less stately than "column of light," sunbeam has brightened our language. From it the word beam alone came to mean "a ray or rays of light"; it subsequently became a verb meaning "to radiate." It now allows us not only to beam with pride or happiness but also to beam our broadcasts around the earth and even to the stars.
sunbeams Word History from...

13 comments:

Bill said...

Inflorescent!

The word is new to me, but I'll take it.

Frieda said...

Another nice one. And thank you for the history of the word sunbeam!

Magyar said...

... lovely. As always. _m

Lorraine said...

I love your art and the linguistic history bit, I love languages, I hope that in some future lives I learn all the world's languages...Sunbeam, you are that!

Lorena said...

Lovely poem and bit of history- Love the Sunbeam cars too

Gillena Cox said...

Thanks to all of you for your appreciation

Bill; actually the word is incorrectly spelt; i have edited the image to correct tthe spelling
'inflorescence'; thanks, your comment alerted me to my error

much love
gillena

HaikuKelly said...

I love your pairing of yellow and blue. I can just imagine a blue Caribbean sky and a riotous bunch of yellow flowers so heavy on the branch they are hanging low.

Gillena Cox said...

Kelly; you should really see the poui in bloom; a riotious beauty to behold

much love
gillena

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