Entanglements

Oxford English Dictionary Word-of-the-Day

18th October 2021: hákarl, n. An Icelandic dish comprising the meat of a Greenland shark that has been allowed to ferment (traditionally by burial in sand for up to twelve weeks) then hung to dry for several months.

19th October 2021: beardom, n. The condition or state of being a bear or of being like a bear. Also: the realm of bears.

20th October 2021: dingolay, v. Caribbean (chiefly Trinidad and Tobago). To dance in an exuberant or uninhibited way. Also more generally: to twist or turn one’s body.

21st October 2021: otototoi, int. Expressing grief or pain: alas, woe.

22nd October 2021: fastenment, n. A device that closes or secures something; a fastening.

23rd October 2021: festie, n. A person who attends festivals, esp. regularly; a festival-goer.

24th October 2021: fast foodery, n. A restaurant selling fast food.

He’d been adventurous, gustatorily speaking, once upon a time. Spiced bat, reeking hákarl. The world was shrinking now, though. Recently, it had been all he could manage to collect a few tins from the shop, which he’d slowly make his way through, without pleasure, absorbing the calories in his deepening beardom as if a first hibernation loomed inexpressibly on the horizon of the future. There were many things he used to enjoy, which now would stir no feeling, the memory of which he could merely entertain abstractly, an intellectual puzzle, a thought experiment, from inebriated dingolays to the ache of a loving tryst, things that would once inspire a cry of joy or pitiful otototoi. But that was before, when he was maleable, liquid. The ice had gotten in, and pulled shut the casket lid, clasping its fastenment, and icing up the lock to prevent the entry of any key. The exuberant friends were the first to go, those frivolous besties and festies, fellow patrons of the fast foodery when there was simply no time to lose between events and experiences and the next big things. Then he was left with those tortoise-paced introverts, before they too grew impatient with his brooding. And now, he fades away, alone. Powering down for a long, long time to come.