#listen blame the slæpwerigne for this one | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

landwriter · 11 months

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sure sure i could fall asleep OR i could lie awake in bed tortured by the concept of hapax legomenon in the written record of a non-modern language as either a historic testament to the unexpressible demanding invention or as a lonely monument to a once-spoken word that we otherwise would not have even known once existed at all

#i’m fine really #super fine about this #we don’t know where it was first written #we don’t know if it was prevalent #but we have a term to say #it was here only once #listen blame the slæpwerigne for this one #(old english)#(appears only once)#(in the exeter book)#(translates to sleep-weary)#(weary WITH or weary FOR is debated)#linguistics #language i love thee so #that is an organizational tag not my current sentiment of queer and mild agony #words that could have been created for the purpose of a work or are the only one of their kind that survived obscurity #what a notion

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