Here is the true meaning of ‘condolence’

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING

By PHILIP OCHIENG
Posted  Friday, March 2  2012 at  16:40

Two recent deaths have occasioned countless “condolence” messages.

In one, the sender even “…condoled Mr Michuki’s family…” No, the verb “to condole” requires the preposition “with”. 
Sure, the element “con” prefixed to certain English verbs — such as conjoin, conduct and connote — is prepositional and already means “with”.

So the question is stark: Why the tautology? Why does condole require “with”? Why can’t we simply “condole Mr Michuki’s family…”? Why must we “condole with it”?

Ask me another! For I merely obey the rule. Perhaps — as with Shakespeare — those who invented English thought it vital to “…make assurance double sure…” in every such case.

Yet the mere fact that somebody has “condoled” will satisfy the Michuki family. For, literally, “to condole” is “to feel sad with” — that is, to share the sadness of another person.

The “dole” part of it comes from the Latin verb dolere, which means “to grieve” or “to be sad”.

The noun form of dolere entered English through the French douleur (“great sorrow”), probably crossing the Channel through the 11th-century activities of a Norman French imperialist called Guillaume le Conquerant (“William the Conqueror”).

English has formed at least two adjectives from dolere. A doleful experience is a saddening one. For instance, a dirge is a doleful poem, a funereal song or hymn.

Share This Story

Share 

But do not confuse the adjective funereal with the adjective funerary.

Funereal (from the Latin adjective funereus) describes, not the funeral itself, but only its solemnity — only the mournful or dismal atmosphere, only the snail’s pace of the rituals.

For its part, funerary (from the Latin funerarius) is what describes the funeral.

Funerary relates to anything to do with the real burial process, including even the happier aspects of a funeral — that is to say, the ceremonial interment (or cremation or other kinds of disposal) of a dead person’s body. Funeralia was the 14th-century Latin noun for it.

For its part, dolorous usually precedes a noun to express the depth of sadness into which the deaths of John Njoroge Michuki and James Njenga Karume have plunged so many Kenyans, including myself, but especially their families and close friends — those bereft of the warmth, humour, avuncular wisdom and providence of the departed.

The Latin “con” is the same as the Greek sum (which entered English as syn or sym in such verbs as “to synchronise” and “to sympathise”.

The Greek syn becomes sym and the Latin con becomes com when the main verb begins with a “b”, an “m” or a “p”.

The tongue finds it easier to sym-bolise than to syn-bolise and to com-mute than to con-mute.

The “pathise” element in sympathise comes from pathos (“feeling”), which gives us the adjective pathetic (“provoking pity”) and the noun pathology (the study of species behaviour when diseased).

To sympathise is thus synonymous with to condole. To sympathise is to feel the suffering of another sentient being.

But in constructing your sentence, do not forget to bring in the preposition “with” after those verbs.

ochiengotani@gmail.com