Difficult Words

I just read an article that discloses the game HANGMAN's most difficult word. The word is "jazz". Now before you protest, lety me tell you that a computer tested every word in the English Dictionary. The "j" and "z" are seldom guessed before the noose takes full effect.

This left me wondering about difficult words in other contexts - spelling for example. One of the most often misspelled words is "bellwether." I can see where someone would want to throw in an extra "e" or "a" or "h".

What about difficult words to translate? Bart Wilson writes in Atlantic Monthly, "Did you know that fair is one-to-one untranslatable into any other language–that it is distinctly Anglo in origin? And a relatively new word at that?" He concludes that it is because it has origins in sport and has been carried over into the arena of disputes and complaints.

All this thinking about difficult words brought my mind back to a childhood Sunday School lesson where a King's life turned on one difficult word. "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.'" Acts 26:28. Almost? How difficult this must have been for Paul. How difficult it will prove for the king. How difficult "almost" can become for us.

-- Joel