weltschmerz

I love to learn new words, as I think does every writer. But sometimes, a word is just so perfect. In reading the news about this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee, it turns out that the word that knocked out the second place speller was "weltschmerz." I'd never heard of it, but it means, per the article, "sadness over the evils of the world."

Wow.

Great to have one word that sums that feeling up. Weltschmerz. I'll remember it now... and hope that I never have a need to use it.

My hat is tipped to all the remarkable Spelling Bee spellers... and with that, I'll proofread this for the 3,000,000th time and hope I didn't make any mistakes.