Kelly DavioETYMOLOGICAL NOTEBefore the seventeenth century,the English language had no nounfor comfort. No way to describethat state of better-off-nessfor sleeping on a bed of haythan on a bare plank. No wordto express how much that hay’stexture might be improvedwithout the creep of insector midnight scuttle of mouse. Comfort was only a verb—to solace,to strengthen, to give what aidor blessing one could againsta hemorrhagic wound or lungsplitting with rot. When the nurse cracks the door,the thin wedge of light rakingat my eyes, reminding my bodythat it is body still, she asks if Iam comfortable.

Source: New York Times May 19, 2019 18:56 UTC