Verbum Anni

~ tidalscribe.com

While others were posting their 22 achievements for 2022 and their 23 goals for 2023 on Facebook, I had got as far as putting the washing machine on. As bloggers wrote about their Word of the Year I was contemplating making chicken stock, checking the washing machine filter and finishing my Christmas cards.

On the writing and blogging front in the early 2020’s I have not had a novel on virtual tour, excitedly revealed my new cover or started a new novel.

If I am going to choose a word of the year perhaps it could be TIDY. Tidying is an unavoidable activity closely linked to cleaning; both are tasks that take us away from more creative pursuits. Whether you are tidying up after Christmas visitors or faced with dusting when you take your cards and decorations down, most of us start the year with tidying of some sort. We might even enjoy the virtuous feeling of getting the year off to a good start and after vacuuming turn to our computer to tidy up our internet banking or our digital lives.

Perhaps one of my aims for 2023, apart from starting a novel, could be to learn Latin. I love the brevity of Latin; Word of the Year replaces four words with two, Verbum Anni. It would take us half the time to write and read blogs if we all wrote them in Latin.

Do you have a word of the year or some worthy aims? Will you trek to Everest Base Camp or tidy your sock drawer?

NOVUS ANNUS

33 thoughts on “Verbum Anni”

  1. I took four Latin courses in college, have forgotten it, but would be willing to relearn it for blogging purposes. Just the other day, I was asking myself why I adamantly refuse to get rid of my Latin textbooks. Now I know.

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  3. I too am between works-in-progress. I was briefly enthused a few days ago by the idea of starting the new year by cleaning out the junk drawer and the mysterious zone under the kitchen sink. But I haven’t gotten around to either job, and the enthusiasm has waned.
    I’ve never studied Latin, but have occasionally wanted to, exactly because of the brevity you mention. None of those pesky little prepositions, just inflections!

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  5. Carpe diem.
    I learned Cambridge Latin at school, but mostly remember the cartoons of naked people in the Empire’s bathhouses, which was rather odd at a Catholic convent school, but I suppose it came under the auspices of ‘classics’. As my Latin teacher said, “The people who wrote this book seem very conscious that there are men and women in the world.” She also said, “Jacqueline, you never cease to amaze me as to how stupid you are.” I can’t remember what facetious thing I did or said, but I probably deserved it!
    I love the brevity of Italian, where pronouns are a given, even if the verb form is the same. (Sono – I am, or they are!)
    Tidy is a good word. I love the concept, but have never been able to put it into practice.
    My word of the year is FOCUS because I am always too busy getting distracted by other things and need to get on with writing my next blog after a 2 month break.

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    1. Hello Jaqueline, we did not do Latin at high school in Australia so I’ll never know if I would have mastered it. Our English teacher did ask me and my best friend, as we giggled our way through school, in front of the class , if we were trying to ruin our lives!

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  6. I did nothing of note in 2022 except to develop lactose intolerance, undergo cancer tests in September, and almost died (exaggeration, but I was very ill) of Covid at Christmas. My only ambition for 2023 is to stay alive and not be ill.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. My life is full of good intentions. I look after them well so very few bother to go on and become actions – housework least of all!

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  11. Felix annus novus! My goal for 2023 is to try to avoid avoidable stuff that makes me angry or stressed – like the Parish Council, of which I am an increasingly reluctant member. I did medieval Latin as a subsidiary at university – huge mistake! And I can’t remember much about it, so it was a waste of time too.

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