An absolutely fascinating article in the New Statesman Christmas and New Year special about the evolution of the English language and the work of Hana Videen.

A favourite Old English word of hers is uht-cearu. Uht is the pre-dawn time and cearu is cares, so uht-cearu means the cares or anxiety that we have in the time before dawn: the idea of lying awake and thinking about all the things you need to Worry about.

This resonates with me because I have uht-cearu sometimes, but the idea that people had a word for this 1300 years ago is quite astonishing, though I’m not 100% sure why, as they would have had plenty to worry about. Some things never change, it’s only the things to worry about that do.