Your Sereneness

Of late, I have been quite busy, in a good sort of way.  For “Be-Worded,” most words I write about come from everyday life experiences.  In my busy-ness, I have been distracted, and words for the blog have not been presenting themselves readily.  The other day, I ran across an old Mary Engelbreit-themed journal with the title, “The Queen’s Journal.”  I opened and flipped through entries.  One entry dated 4 January 2005 popped out at me. It reads, “I am feeling serene.  That is an adjective not found on those magnetic ‘Today I Feel’ thingies.”  I have always associated serenity with calmness, so I looked up “serene.”  While I found meanings which I expected, I also found one surprising definition.

I started my investigation with the Oxford English Dictionary.  The first meaning listed is “of the weather, air, sky:  Clear, fine and calm (without cloud or rain or wind).”  The next meaning reads, “of other natural phenomena (e.g. the sea): calm, tranquil.”  With the third meaning, we finally run into serenity regarding people, not the weather: “of a person, his mind, circumstances, etc.: calm, tranquil, untroubled, unperturbed.”  The final meaning was new to me: “an honorific epithet given to a reigning prince (esp. of Germany), formerly also to a member of a royal house.”

Next, I checked the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), where people trumped nature in the “serene” category.  The first meaning listed is “Content or composed; untroubled,” followed by “Unaffected by disturbance; calm or peaceful.”  Weather shows up in the third meaning, “Unclouded; fair:  serene skies and a bright blue sea.”  For the “royal” definition, the AHD is more general:  “Used as a title and form of address for certain members of royalty.”

Using the AHD definition regarding royalty, those of you who know me as “the Queen of Everything” (whether you agree or not!) can now refer to me as “Her Sereneness” or perhaps the “Serene Serene Queen.”  Some Schroonies in my readership have posted on Facebook some awesome pictures of the recent serene sunsets we have had of late.  While we have had some clear days, the wind of late has rendered our daytime weather not serene

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(For those who care, “serene” came into Middle English from Latin.)

By the way, my serenity in January, 2005, lasted until 13 January, where the entry reads, “I am back to feeling discombobulated (nice word).”  Perhaps that word will supply material for my next blog entry.