Here we stand, hand in hand, gazing out across the rippling surface. Let's dive into the depths and see what we discover there. I don't mean the deep wintry midnight blue of grief and depression. Let's look deep into the history, and all the shades of meaning, of an everyday three letter word.
James Joyce read the whole Oxford English Dictionary, the biggest dictionary there is. It fills a bookcase about as big as a doorway. I have the compact OED, which is shrunk into two volumes of small print, and comes with its own magnifying glass. Today we'll only be looking at a couple of its thousands of pages.
In Proto-Indo-European, the root Sa- meant to satisfy. It descended into Old Norse (Sadd-r), Old Swedish (Sad), Old High German (Sat), and entered Old English as Sadian, meaning to satisfy or fill.
You might think this is odd, since we use use Sad today to express a kind of emptiness. But another view is that sadness is a heavy dullness that crowds out conscious thought and lively feeling, filling you with so much darkness that less light can reach you.
The past participle of Sadian was Saed, meaning sated. In Middle English, the commonest spelling was Sad. Before 1300, the word had only a few, very closely related shades of meaning: Satisfied; Having had one's fill; Sated, weary, or tired (of some thing).
Al our lyf . . Ys but a maner of exile here, of which we ought to be Sad. 1407
My favorite thing about the OED is that, whenever it finds a certain shade of meaning in the history of a word, it gives a specific citation from literature as an example to clarify that usage. My blockquotes in this essay will all be drawn from the OED or the Middle English Dictionary.
In the 1300s, this trunk of meaning (sated, full of, fulfilled) began gradually to branch out, to include new meanings of Sad. The first branch shifted the emphasis from fullness to firmness: Settled; Steadfast; Firmly established in purpose or condition.
All Christen people that will be saued, must haue Sad belief in the holy sacrament. 1553
The quotes I'm picking are merely to clarify particular shades of meaning, so the dates just indicate when I found an example I liked. The developments of new meaning in this essay all happened in the 13, 14 and 1500s. Shakespeare was extremely lucky: he found English in a fluid state, and filling up with fresh discoveries as Elizabeth I expanded the sway of the land and the tongue.
Our branch (Sad meaning Firm) then split in two. In the first branch, Sad meant Firm or Solid (applied to human character or purpose); in the second branch, Sad became Firm or Solid (applied to material things). So now Sad could mean Solid, dense, compact; Massive, heavy.
The flesh of buls . . is of Sadder substance and therefore much heavier as it lieth in the scale. 1587
All we're doing here is looking into the dusty scrolls of centuries past. But these quotes reflect, for me, all the poetry that lives in human understanding. We are so human, so alive with imagination, that we look at dead things and bring them to life. We see a doll, or a block of wood, or black scribbles on a white page, and we pour meaning into them, we see beyond - we think of things like them, things they might have been, things they could yet become. Poetry animates our words, and spirit dances in our use of language.
This second branch of meaning (Solid, dense, massive) was an inspired dancer. It seems natural, to me, that Sad would grow to mean Intense, excessive. What's wonderful is the variety of nouns it applied itself to:
Stiff Soil: Land is Sad when the frosts of winter have not mellowed it. 1889
Unrisen Bread: It makes the crust Sad, and is a great hazard of the pie running. 1747
Sound Sleep: May here him snore; he ys Sade a-slepe. 1450
Heavy Rain: Heaven it self at that instant weeping so abundantly, that I never saw a Sadder raine and of less continuance. 1638
Violent Blows: But I my swerd in hand had Strykynge at hym with strokes Sad. 1503
Dark Color: And where be my gounes of scarlet, Sanguyn, murreye, & blewes Sadde & lighte. 1412
Other uses of Sad: Firm Grip; Raging Fire; Intense Ardor.
So those are all the surprising shoots springing out of Sad's second branch of meaning. Unless you're waxing poetic, or sailing in a drunken boat, you won't find them in use today. But perhaps, after reading this essay, you'll sometimes look for them.
Going back to the first branch (Constancy, firmness of character), we find it evolving over time. The Sad man, when he first appeared in print around 1300 was settled, solid, Salt of the Earth. Over the next century he matured, grew more profound, and gained class and courage.
You can, to a degree, judge a person by the company they keep. The same is true of words. When you see a word cropping up in a set phrase, or frequently paired with the same companion, those words rub some of their own flavor and value onto each other.
In the early 1300s men (and, very occasionally, women) were often called Sad and Discreet. A century later the word found most often beside Sad was Wise, with Honest and True close behind.
The Sad man was at first constant and regular, but gradually became trustworthy, serious, and often solemn (which is Sad's first step towards its modern meaning). He stepped up the social ladder, and his rightness was sometimes imbued with might and valor:
In Surrye whilom dwelt a compaignye Of chapmen riche and thereto Sadde and trewe. 1386
The . . wisest Bayliffs and other Sadd and discreate cytezens. 1562
Noble Knightes ten, Stronge, hable, and light, men Sad and mighty. 1475
Now we return to the main trunk of meaning from which those two branches grew. Sad came into English meaning Filled, Sated. There is already something of our modern Sadness implicit in this: being sated leads to feeling stuffed and weary, where the eagerness that was anticipation sours towards regret. We saw the first branch (Firmness of purpose) evolve from Settled through Wise towards Somber, and that arc also bends towards melancholy.
This meaning of Sad developed another kind of poetry, different from the intricacy we saw in all the ways Intense/Excessive could be applied. Our modern sense of Sad can point inwards, at the person who feels they are breaking, or outwards, at the conditions they feel are crushing them:
This ambassade was sent . . to visit and comforte the kyng, beyng sorowful & sad for the death of so good a quene & spouse. 1548
It quickly appear'd how sad is the condition of a Gentleman without learning. 1688
There are so many shades of Sadness - wistful, crestfallen, morose, blue, crushed, heartbroken, to name a few. I'm not here to dwell on them. But I did put Sad right there in the title, so please feel free to share any thoughts you have on the word or the feeling, in your comments below.
That's where the word stands today, with one addendum.
Shakespeare took the implication of pitiable, which we've just seen, and turned it to the other side of pathetic: worthless, deserving of scorn.
And how cams't thou hither? Where no man ever comes, but that Sadde dogge That brings me food, to make misfortune live? 1593
How is Philadelphia? . . That's one Sad-ass city . . bout to sink into the ground. 1971
If you think that's a lot of meanings you didn't suspect, go look up Set in your dictionary: it has more meanings than any other English word.
What does Sad mean to you?
What does Happy or Joyful or Lively or Funny mean to you?
The sexiest part of a person's anatomy is their smile.
What's your own favorite word? What word sounds interesting to you? What word just sounds or looks wrong?