Word of the Week! Doldrum Richmond Writing

Word of the Week! Doldrum Richmond Writing July marks the lowest ebb of my summer, at least when I do not escape Richmonds continual sauna for more temperate climes. I feel like Im a ship becalmed under a burning sun. In a word, in the doldrums. By August Im gearing up for the semester ahead and the doldrums lie behind me. Our word this week has a fascinating history, with the OED Online providing an etymology from the more familiar dull and the less familiar dold, meaning dim-witted. We no longer call a dull or boring person a doldrum, saving that term for dull moods, as when Carlo Marx, the fictional counterpart of Allen Ginsberg in Kerouacs On the Road,   complains of times when he is not being creative as his doldrums. I consider the nautical use of the word its most pow erful. Every summer, for no reason I can fathom, I pack my sea chest and embark on a fictional sea voyage, usually by sail. It is not something Id ever want to do in reality, but the specialized language of sailing, the rich history, and of course the many disasters compel me to read on. This year my pick is Joshua Slocums 1900 memoir, Sailing Alone Around the World. Slocum was the first person, at least on record, to do so. He faced many dangers, from pirates, storms, to hostile native tribes, and I looked forward with delight to his traversing the Atlantic doldrums, an equitorial region where winds are calm or nonexistent. Slocum sailed right through, to my great disappointment. Otherwise, the book is really fine reading. Yet to this reader the thought of being beca lmed at sea seems worse than any storm. All one can do is wait for wind. Thus the term fits well with Carlo Marxs, and other writers,   fears of getting stuck. May your doldrums be brief and a fair wind fill your sails, until the storms of Autumn arrive. This blog will continue all summer, so nominate a word by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below. See all of our Words of the Week  here. Creative Commons image from Flikr, courtesy of Joan Campderrós-i-Canas