Sunday, December 3, 2017

The Wreckening

I've heard the name "The Reckoning" recently used to encapsulate the whole #MeToo phenomenon. In English, the verb "to reckon" is quant and mostly relegated to backwoods banter: "I reckon that's so." City folk don't reckon at all, and if they do, it's usually regarding end world times -- the Final Reckoning.

"To reckon" used to mean to enumerate, to count up, to estimate. We've mostly stopped using it. It's lost like many good old Anglo-Saxon words. "By my reckoning" survives as a frozen vestige. The Germans of course still use it frequently: Die Rechnung means "the check, the invoice, or the bill."

The Bill. Think about that one, especially if you're starting to think that The Reckoning is Hillary's Revenge.

1 comment:

edutcher said...

Great line from Tombstone: Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after. It's a reckonin'.

Also a lyric from Garry Owen.

And if there's any reckoning, the Beast will pay it. I honestly can't say if Smith, Stevens, Woods, and Doherty are through with her.