Summertime
I
am positively wallowing in the wonder of summer. During the school year, my
middle-schoolers make me laugh, but to be honest, they’ve got nothing on summer.
So this week I’m indulging in a modicum of etymology & a few celebratory quotes
about summer.
Summer comes to English from Sanskrit. It appeared in English in 825, meaning
exactly what it does today & spelled sumur. Interestingly, summer
is etymologically related to the word gossamer, which came to English in
the early 1300s, from a marriage of the words goose & summer,
& meant spider threads spun in fields
of stubble in late fall. Etymologists theorize that the spider silk looked
a bit like goose feathers. Hmm. Within a century, gossamer found its
present meaning, of light, flimsy, or
delicate.
Here
are some authors’ thoughts about summer.
“Summer's lease hath all too short a date.”
-Celia Thaxter
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing
on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar
conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
“Come with me,' Mom says.
To the library.
Books and summertime
go together.”
“One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of
winter.”
"Summertime and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ as high as the sky
Your mama’s rich and your daddy’s good-looking
So hush little baby, don’t you cry"
-DuBose Heyward, music
by George Gershwin
So, good followers, what
thoughts do you have regarding summer or on these thoughts of summer?