Yesterday I interviewed the word “some.” Today you’ll see why I was impressed.
The Anglo-Saxons, those lovers of sturdy, compact words, spelled “some” with just three letters, sum. When you are a warrior, you can’t go into battle with extra gear, so you like your words spare and without extraneous letters. They bog you down. Anglo-Saxon warriors invaded and settled much of Britain, with simple spears, throwing them at their enemies until they got the point that this was more than a road trip. The ships the Anglo-Saxons came in weren’t going back. Those warriors also sent their words out to conquer hearts: read Beowulf and be prepared to submit. Today, when we want to make a point, we often grab some of those well-honed Anglo-Saxon words and throw them at our listener or reader.
First page of Beowulf manuscript from Wikipedia
Although “some” has been working for writers since the 9th century, including King Alfred the Great who translated of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, it still looks great. I think it’s because it gets so much exercise.
Some use it as a pronoun. As I just did. However, some people prefer it as an adjective. Like me, in that last sentence. Back when “some” was starting its career, it worked as both. Then in the late 1500s, it applied for a job as an adverb, pairing up with comparative adjectives, to say, “I’m feeling some better now.” Once it got used to being an adverb, some Americans asked it to work with verbs so they could say, “I think some about retiring from my job, so I can read blogs all day.” You might use it as an adverb, too, when you write your mother and say, “I’m sorry I haven’t written in the last six months, I now read some 200 blogs a day. I promise I’ll call at Christmas.”
Even though “some” likes being its own word and going out alone, it’s not a loner. In fact, it likes nothing better than going places with other words. After years of appearing in public with words like “one,” “body,” “where,” and “time,” it agreed to give up its autonomy and become one word, with the stipulation that its name appear first. It’s the only evidence of self-promotion that I discovered about “some.”
Since “some” rarely calls attention to itself, I’m inclined to look kindly on its desire to appear first because I admire its willingness to serve a suffix. As you well know if you read this blog, a suffix is like a dog’s tail. Had you bought my Dog and a Half kit (now marked down 85%!), which you didn’t, you would have been able to create a lot of words with the suffix –some. That should give you pause.
Back in the early 900s, “some” joined hands with “love” and produced that most lovable word, one of my favorites, called “lovesome.” Around the same time, it joined up with the word wyn, which meant “pleasant” or “agreeable” and gave us the word we now spell as “winsome.” It worked as a suffix for several hundred years, but for some reason, words like “whosome,” “whatsome,” and “wheresome” never caught on. I like them and think we should try to revive them.
In the middle of the 1400s, “some” became interested in numbers. Writers could now speak of a “twosome” or a “threesome.” Today, we have dozens of words – nouns, adjectives, and verbs – that end in the suffix –some. Some are regional, but they belong to all of us who love words. Here are some of my favorites:
- Blithesome – cheery
- Bunglesome – troublesome
- Chucklesome – amusing
- Delightsome – pleasing
- Fulsome – abundant; plenteous
- Fretsome – given to fretting
- Irksome – wearisome
- Meddlesome – given to meddling
- Toothsome – pleasant to the taste
- Ugsome – loathsome
- Woesome – woeful
I could go on, but that would be tiresome and boresome. Have a heartsome day – one full of gladness and cheer.
An extract from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Laud Misc. 636, fol. 62v.
year-struck 
And this is yet another of your winsome pieces. Which included a bonus link to “Dog and a Half” …. another equally awesome piece.
I’m glad you thought it was winsome.
You serve up a great dollop of delightsomeness, thank you, it is like the dessert to my day.
So glad to hear that it was like dessert. Words are delicious, aren’t they?
I am glad some has been unmasked as the star of yesterday’s post. All the wondering about what the word might be was bothersome.
It helps us express so much that is somewhat of a star.
By the end, I had read the word so many times I couldn’t grasp any meaning from any of the words 😦
It’s like when you are a child and you repeat a word so many times that it starts to sound like gibberish. I try to write in such a way that the reader does not need to repeat the words to achieve that result.
In the words of Charlotte, Some Blog!
It’s all about some words.
This post is some thingelse! Love it. I am going to incorporate the word “ugsome” into my vocabulary.
I don’t imagine “dim sum” fits anywhere? 🙂
We could try using dimsome. For example, Yearstricken has such dimsome ideas. 🙂
But I haven’t seen evidence of your having a dimsome idea.
Chucklesome? Yes it was. I love your posts. Dim sum…funny stuff.
“Some” sure does deliver some delightsome words.
Glad you liked it.
One of the First Story’s I read on my e-Reader, was the Saga of Beowulf revisited. I have a Great Likeness of Ald English…and Slang…as I found many a tosheroon in yon narrative…
I like the words the Anglo-Saxons gave us. I had to look up “tosheroon” and discovered it was a half-crown coin. Interesting. Thanks for that.
Some post that…
I feel thanksome.
ohhhh … now I get it …. they were calling me “bunglesome”
thanks for clearing that up … I thought I heard “jungle dumb”
but couldn’t figure out how they knew I’d never been to the Amazon
now it all makes perfect sense, in that chucklesome sort of fashion
You are a cleversome girl to figure that out.
Old English is a lovesome thing 🙂 I enjoyed reading the snippet from ASC – is it the bit about Domesday book? I’m a little rusty… It was delightsome and made me feel blithesome 🙂 Ugsome is a good word, I feel some people might want to spell it with 2 g’s if they dislike ugg boots! 😉
I got the snippet from the national archives website “Focus on Domesday.” You can see it here
I like your idea of two g’s for those who dislike ugh boots.
Your suffix series has been giving me a case of serious joy, and this latest short essay does not disappoint. Today, you gave me the gift of three things:
1) You made me laugh. Your seemingly effortless, breezy style in this series is amazing to behold.
2) I learned something new. (Oh look! Some!)
3) You reminded me of a word I had forgotten that I love: toothsome. (Um? Yum!)
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I learned a lot about “some” as I prepared it. There are such delightful words that end in -some.
Boy, are there ever! I’m really loving your suffixes.
There’s something I’ve been looking to find for a long time— Do you know where I might find a comprehensive list of suffixes and prefixes in English? For fun?
This website is pretty thorough: http://www.affixes.org/
Language can get overblown to the point of being cumbersome, but not “some”–a word that, happily, is greater than the sum of some of its parts. A lightsome treatment here of something really important!
I know you love words, Kathryn, so I’m glad you liked it.
This is a beautiful piece. But I had to read it, put it aside, and read it again to really appreciate it. Despite my interest in language, I don’t think I’ve ever read anyone who writes like you. It’s a pleasure looking at language through your eyes.
I’m glad it brought you pleasure.
This was just like getting a little something something from some and what a wondersome experience it was!
I’m glad you didn’t find it tiresome.
You are something else,
I never get bored reading the delightsome pieces you’ve written.
Somewhere there’s an editor who wishes they had a contract with you.
Somehow, I’ve never felt any of my time on your site was wasted.
Someday I hope to have some more ability with words so that I too can publish such fulsome posts.
And to sum up, if you are ever in the neighborhood of my posts again, I hope you find some of my poetry winsome.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. I have been remiss in visiting many people’s blogs these days, just trying to keep my head above water. I have a week off coming up, so I will be visiting your blog.
Thank you for taking the time. I too have been rather busy, so taking the time to do something different was a relief.
Love this post. I like how you personalize words. Makes things much more interesting to read.
I’m so glad you liked it. Thanks for reading.