Monday, November 29, 2010

The Pain of Joy

I came across another one of those crazy word wonderments.

Joy.

One can be overjoyed, but what about just joyed?
Nope, not really.  It doesn't count as a word in the dictionaries I checked.

It's odd, since it takes wee bit less effort and one less word to say
 "It joyed me." than it does to say "It brought me joy."

And yet - "enjoyed" is fine, which again, causes more to be there than necessary, it would seem.

Apparently it had been okay to say "joyed" at one time, since we find it in use by Shakespeare in 
Henry IV, Part 1
Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose, it was the death of him.

No, I didn't pore over the the Bard to find that... nor did I know it off the top of my head.  The only reason I know it is because Dictionary.com had it listed as a quote for "joy."  Hmmm.  And yet it doesn't appear AS a word.

Words can be weird.
Maybe I just notice and care because I work with them?

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