Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Etymology - Dream

Interestingly, two seperate nouns listed, thought to be different to each other because of different roots. But not unrelated - the obsolete form refers to joy,pleasure, mirth or music - in old english or middle english.
The usage retained today appears in middle english only (and the OED scholars are puzzled to why it was not in old english) but also links to germanic of similar period.

Significantly, the usage starts earliest with the classic idea of dreaming - thoughts while sleeping, moves into day dreaming, and only later takes on the meanings at one step remove - like ambition or aspiration - appearing only in the twentieth century.

I also find it interesting that there is a tentative etymological connection to draum/draug in early german - words which have meanings relating to deception and to ghosts.

I feel like dreams linger like ghosts do, and have similar energetic qualities in the way we relate to them (I am not a believer in ectoplasm, but I am a believer that people can put themselves in a state where they have to all intents and purposes "seen" a ghost, and this state has connections to a dream state)

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