Today’s word of the day is lugubrious, an adjective meaning 1. “sad or gloomy” or 2. “exaggeratedly mournful,” according to Word Genius (https://www.wordgenius.com/). Dictionary.com defines it as “mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner.” It is pronounced / lʊˈgu bri əs, /, with the emphasis on the second syllable.

According to www.etymonline.com, lugubrious entered the language “c. 1600, formerly also lugubrous, from -ous + Latin lugubris ‘mournful, doleful, pertaining to mourning,’ from lugere ‘to mourn,’ from PIE root *leug- ‘to break; to cause pain’ (source also of Greek lygros ‘mournful, sad,’ Sanskrit rujati ‘breaks, torments,’ Lettish lauzit ‘to break the heart’).”  Lettish, by the way, is one of the official languages of Latvia, spoken by over a million Latvians. It is from the Baltic subfamily of languages, part of the IndoEuropean family of languages. Of course, we can also guess that the word entered the language during the period when ink horn terms were popular, the importing of long words with classical roots to replace or provide synonyms for common words.

If you read my post yesterday, you know that I shared lots of quotes about winning, or winning and losing, or the relative importance of winning compared to, say, other things in life, especially if that “winning” is in the context of games.

Well, the Clemson Tigers won, 29-23, and the Ohio State fans were furious. There were several really important plays during the course, three of which involved video replay reviews. All three of the reviews benefited Clemson, though the commentators all agreed that the calls were legitimate. And it is also true that Ohio State had the ball inside the 20 yard line of Clemson three times and could not score a touchdown, a fact which came back to bite them.

Earlier today, in the English Premier League (that’s association football, or soccer), Arsenal lost to Chelsea 2-1 when Chelsea came back from a goal down with two goals in the last ten minutes of regular time. Some of the Arsenal fans were upset because one of the Chelsea goal scorers, Jorginho, committed a foul that, they thought, deserved a yellow card, and that would have been Jorginho’s second yellow. On the other hand, Arsenal’s Guendouzi should have gotten his second yellow in the first half, and his foul (which the commentators agreed should have been called) would have given Chelsea a penalty kick.

This afternoon, in the National Football League, the Dallas Cowboys managed to crush the Washington Redskins, but that didn’t help them get into the playoffs because the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants.

Sports are full of lugubrious moments. But ultimately, they really are not that important. Then again, people tend to get carried away with their sports.

The image shows Ohio State’s defensive back Shaun Wade targeting Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence. Targeting is a foul where the defender leads with the crown of his helmet and strikes the other player above the waist. Wade was kicked out of the game, as per rule, for this penalty, and in the picture, it’s pretty clear that it was the right call. The image came from https://www.totalprosports.com/2019/12/28/ohio-state-db-shaun-wade-ejected-for-targeting-head-shot-that-knocked-trevor-lawrence-out-of-fiesta-bowl-video/.