Penultimate is one of my favorite words. It means second to last. I use the word so often it drives my family a little crazy. So, when I woke up this morning on the day before New Years Eve, 2020, penultimate popped into my head pretty quickly.
I turned to the Merriam Webster website for the last word on penultimate. It seems the word was first used in print all the way back in 1677. Thanks to the time traveler feature at the MW site, I discovered many words that came into print in 1677 still had special significance in 2020. To illustrate I will jot a few words about 2020 as it draws nigh and embolden the words from 1677. I have also put links on each word to their definition as some of these 1677 words were new to me.
I always like to be veracious so as I look back at the year 2020 I must say that after some introspection I am somewhat glad that this is the penultimate day of a year that was as oppressive as it was implausible; as riveting as it was slatternly.
I don't like to sound huffy, but it upset me when I found out this March that both my jobs were inessential. I would turn on the television to watch the splutter of unsustainable overpromise. Never-mind the tug-of-war between the ballot box and the electoral college that tried to make the courtroom function as a middleman.
I'm sure that years from now when we unpack a yearbook from a duffel ,2020 will still be considered a difficult year; with some exertion and by being intentional we were able to configure a new normal. I'm sorry I hope you didn't doze off while I went on like someone giving a keynote at a quarterly meeting.
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