It’s raining here today — I’m not complaining, it’s rained all around us this year but we have hardly gotten any. So I’m good with a dreary day as long as we get some rain.
That’s a word that I heard a lot when I was growing up — dreary — pretty much always used to describe the weather. I remember my parents and grandparents using it a lot — if it was a cloudy day, or especially if it was a cloudy and cold day, it was referred to as dreary.
I don’t remember hearing it much in recent years, but Claire used the term the other day and the day was, in fact, overcast.
I did a bit of checking, and I’d say that if you describe something as dreary, you mean that it’s dull and depressing — I suppose that could even be applied to people, although I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it used that way.
If you’re into word origins, I think the term comes from the Old English dreorig, meaning sad or sorrowful. It originally meant cruel, bloody, blood-stained — from droer, meaning gore or blood.
So generally speaking, dreary isn’t a particularly happy word… maybe that’s why it seems to crop up more often these days. But at least it has lost its original sense and the notion of “dripping blood.” So I guess maybe we’re at least moving in the right direction….
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