The Saddest Word

For when the crying-frown emoji is a little too lighthearted.

Updates to yesterday’s post here.

In Word Ways #3.2, Mohan Lal Sharma echoed a conversation overheard by Sir James Barrie, wherein five young ladies discussed the saddest word in the English language. One Poe fan promoted nevermore; another, who was into Shakespeare and especially King Lear, went with never. A third, apparently not understanding the assignment, stumped for it might have been.

Of the three, nevermore is my personal favorite. It’s got a strong association with “The Raven,” it’s more specific than never, and while it could be used for a positive purpose—“Nevermore will that gaslighting monster be a part of our lives,” “Nevermore will people speak my name with pity”—it just doesn’t seem to get used that way.

William Faulkner argued that the saddest words were was and again. He’s an authority on the matter: as a writer, he knew how to make you ache! But I think it’s more like these words have the potential to convey sadness than that they’re really, inherently sad themselves. “Was” can convey the irretrievable past, but some things are worth getting rid of. “Again” is sad when those things come back, but many repeated actions are good ones.

Experience is subjective, eye of the beholder and all that. Sharma notes that the word harmless can be quite sad when applied to an elderly man.

Alone is such a subjective word, in my eyes. Our lives have more meaning when shared, and being alone is tied to so many fears and anxieties for us, whether we’re young or old. Yet solitude can also be a pleasure, and one can stand alone in accomplishment as well as isolation.

For my money, the saddest word is heartbreak. I’ve had my heart broken and gone on to love again—you could even argue that’s a rite of passage for many of us. But something about the noun form of heartbreak sounds more permanent, more final. I don’t know if the arrangement of four consonant sounds at its center adds to the word’s sense of permanence, its melancholy effect. Like nevermore, it seems to be reserved for special moments.

What about the happiest word? Euphoria is very pretty, and despite its use as a TV show title, it’s not so often used that it loses its currency. But I prefer bliss. It implies a sustainable state of happiness; euphoria is more of an enjoy-it-while-it-lasts feeling. Bliss is a state to which we can aspire.