Go back and look at some of the statistical information in Thursday’s devotional concerning the American Dictionary. Go on… I’ll be here when you get back. Did you refresh your memory? Let me add something to that.
- The Oxford English Dictionary includes over 600,000 words.
- Merriam-Webster contains around 470,000 English words.
- Researchers estimate that there are approximately 1,022,000 English words, with the number growing by about 8,500 each year.1
Of all those words, which one is the saddest? That question was posed to several famous people. There answers might surprise you.
“Poet T.S. Eliot: “The saddest word in the English language is, of course, ‘saddest.’” Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II: “But.” Writer John Dos Passos quoted John Keats: “Forlorn! the very word is like a bell.” Psychiatrist Karl Menninger: “Unloved.” Statesman Bernard M. Baruch: “Hopeless.” President Harry Truman quoted John Greenleaf Whittier: “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’” Alexandra Tolstoi: “The saddest word in all languages, which has brought the world to its present condition, is ‘atheism.’
“… I think of that word which Keats used so dramatically—“forlorn.” It is the English form of the Dutch word verloren, which means “lost.”2 Could that qualify as the saddest word in the English language. Consider what we read in Ephesians 2:12.
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
Lost. Aliens. Stranger. No hope. Without God in this world and without God in the world to come. I know verse 12 is a lot more than just one word but it is certainly the saddest thing you’ll read.
Take this a step further. What’s the saddest word(s) you could ever hear? I think Matthew 7:23 sews this one up. Jesus said, “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Last thought…what are the most frightening words you’ll ever read? Revelation 20:14-15 says, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
If you are saved, aren’t you glad that these are words that no longer apply to your life? Instead, we look forward to hearing these words: “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:21
1https://capitalizemytitle.com/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language/
2https://bible.org/illustration/ephesians-212
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