Word of the Day: Tragedy

trag·e·dy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (trj-d)n. pl. trag·e·dies
A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.
A play, film, television program, or other narrative work that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending.
A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life: an expedition that ended in tragedy, with all hands lost at sea.
A tragic aspect or element.

When I was in 9th grade, my English teacher made me write an essay about a single word. I thought this was a stupid assignment. I mean, isn't it a little weird that in order to explain one word I would have to use another 400 some words? I decided I would just close my eyes and point to a random word in the dictionary to write about. The word I selected: necrophilia. Yeah, my teacher wouldn't let me write about that.

So finally I settled on the word tragedy because it was the most negative-sounding word that my teacher would let me write about. In the essay, I had to explain why I selected the word I did, to which I gave the same reasons I listed here above. I got a D on that paper.

And here I am several years later, and discovering that writing about a single word can actually be fun! But alas, the real tragedy is that Laura is coming back and I will now be handing her blog back to her. I wonder how long it will be before she revokes my access?

Thanks for letting me play with your blog Laura! It was fun.