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April 2008Words in the NewsLast month's announcement of Eliot Spitzer's ties to a prostitution ring was followed by a spectacularly rapid fall from power. Media coverage on New York's governor also led to three words spiking on the most-looked-up list during that week: tryst, hubris, and tawdry. Nowadays (and in the case of the former governor), a tryst refers to "an agreement, often between lovers, to meet at a specified time and place." But judging from the full story of tryst, all's fair in love and war and trysting. Tryst has linguistic kin in trust, which is believed to have ancestors in Scandinavian and Old Norse words. The Old Norse treysta meant "to make strong and safe; make firm; trust." That developed into the Old French triste, meaning "an appointed station in hunting; watch post; or ambush." Once tryst appeared in English during the 14th century, it developed a number of senses. In Scotland, tryst names a mutual agreement and does not connote romance at all. Tryst is also applied to a market or fair, especially a fixed annual cattle market. While tryst made the news, the more apropos (but perhaps too long for headlines) assignation did not. Tryst generally is used for a lovers' agreement to meet at a particular place or time, while assignation is commonly applied to an illicit or clandestine tryst. |