A Sad Time Of Year

First published 9-30-14 (Note: I am re-posting this on 9-29-19, and this is the last day of the regular season. This year the Cleveland Indians will not be in the playoffs. When I was a kid, there were no playoffs, because there were no divisions, but rather the top National League team and the top American League team simply faced off in the World Series.) 

My major passion as a kid was baseball. I played it, listened to it on radio and watched it on television, although in those times, the late 1950s through the 1960s, televised games were not as common as today, although besides games televised by the teams on local stations, the fans could get special television treats if their favorite team was participating in the "Game of the Week," carried by NBC on Saturday afternoons. I lived and died with the Cleveland Indians ... okay, I died, but there was always next year, so I kept hope alive. I knew every player's uniform number, his batting average and his other stats. The last game of the season was always a sad time for me, as the days to spring seemed to move more slowly than I could eat broccoli or turnips... okay, maybe the days weren't THAT slow; then again, let me think about that. Gradually the leaves emptied from the trees, the north winds brought snow and cold temperatures, but then, just as gradually, the snow began to melt, the winds began to warm, the Indians went to spring training at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, and my spirits soared, as I knew it wouldn't be long before I heard the familiar voice of longtime Indians' broadcaster Jimmy Dudley say, "This is your old friend Jimmy Dudley." And his wonderful Virginia accented voice couldn't have come at a better time, because I had finally finished that damned broccoli.

WORD HISTORY:
Sad-Notice how the meaning of this word, closely related to "sate" (once also spelled "sade"), has changed in English. It goes back to Indo European "sa(h)," with the notion of "satisfaction, having enough." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "sathaz," which indeed meant "sated;" that is, "full, satisfied, enough." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "saed," with essentially the same meaning, but also the extended meaning "weary (of/with)," from the notion of being full. The idea of "weary from being full" then expanded in the 1300s to the primary meaning it has retained ever since, "unhappy." In case you were wondering, both "sad" and "sate" are related to "satisfy," but this word, from the same Indo European source as "sad/sate," came from the Latin branch of Indo European, and it was borrowed by English via French, a heavily Latin-based language. As for "sad," its Germanic relatives are: German "satt" (full, well fed, but also "smug," and the comparative form is "satter," formed just as English "sadder," and the superlative "[am] sattesten,'' similar to English "saddest"), Low German "satt" ("full, not hungry," but notice the comparative form is "sadder" and the superlative is "saddst," very much like English "sadder and saddest,"), West Frisian "sed" (full, sated), Dutch "zat" (sated, but also "drunk;" that is, "full of alcohol"). To be quite honest, modern forms of "sad" or "sate" in the North Germanic languages, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish, at least forms that are used somewhat, seem to be lacking, although Old Norse had a form,"saethr" (actually "saðr" in old style). So it seems North Germanic forms are archaic (for example: Norwegian "sat" and Icelandic "sethja").