A fleeting sense of Onement
Felt just before the Day of Atonement
This is a #haiku I wrote today - the day before Yom Kippur, 2025. I wrote it after learning the origin of atonement, that is of the English word atonement, which is quite different from what I had thought or imagined to be the case. I would have guessed that the word was of classical origin, probably derived from Ecclesiastical Latin, something like atonatus which would have meant to make proper amends …. But that turns out to be not at all the case.
Atone is a word that's Middle English in origin. It was derived as a compound word, or a word that was coined by putting together two other pre-existing Middle English words – at and one. By compounding, to atone meant to be at one or well reconciled. The first known written usage of atone appears in around 1555 but even prior to that there is a Middle English word onement which conveyed a similar idea – being in the state of onement, meant you would be well reconciled to your neighbors, your community or perhaps to the entire world. That’s what we seek by atonement after all – to be at onement. It’s a beautiful and powerful idea.
Noice, as the kids say, which if you dissect the same way gives you No Ice
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