Sunday was a very nautical day. It started when I decided to wear my sailor dress and then at breakfast Mr Music said all I needed was a sailor cap and then I'd look like Stuart Little. I know my sailor dress is a little over the top but I like it and didn't really think I looked like a rodent. My little brothers had sailor suits when I was about 4. I was jealous of the one that had a wooden whistle with it, even though my brother was Strictly Prohibited from blowing it at church. I remember the Easter morning Mum had dressed him in his white sailor suit and he got into the black jelly beans. Mum was not happy about black jelly bean drool on her little sailor.
Anyhow, there I am already in a nautical mindset, when someone in Sunday school has to mention the word "thwarted" in conjunction with Jonah's plan to run from God. And, being the word nut I am, I set off on two different tracks, neither one close to the intended lesson, one about how funny it was for him to use a word with a sea-related meaning while talking about Jonah, and the other about what an odd word "thwart" is, sounds like a speech impediment, and what could it possibly come from, anyhow.
So I get home and after dinner, clean-up, visiting in the nursing home, and watching Beyond the Gates of Splendor, finally got a chance to ask my friend at dictionary.com:
thwart/θwɔrt/[thwawrt]
–verb (used with object)
1.
to oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose.
2.
to frustrate or baffle (a plan, purpose, etc.).
3.
Archaic.
a.
to cross.
b.
to extend across.
–noun
4.
a seat across a boat, esp. one used by a rower.
5.
a transverse member spreading the gunwales of a canoe or the like.
–adjective
6.
passing or lying crosswise or across; cross; transverse.
7.
perverse; obstinate.
8.
adverse; unfavorable.
–preposition, adverb
9.
across; athwart.
[Origin: 1200–50; ME thwert (adv.) < ON thvert across, neut. of thverr transverse; c. OE thweorh crooked, cross, Goth thwairhs cross, angry]
—Related forms
thwart·ed·ly, adverb
thwarter, noun
—Synonyms 1. hinder, obstruct. Thwart,frustrate,baffle imply preventing one, more or less completely, from accomplishing a purpose. Thwart and frustrate apply to purposes, actions, plans, etc., baffle, to the psychological state of the person thwarted. Thwart suggests stopping one by opposing, blocking, or in some way running counter to one's efforts. Frustrate implies rendering all attempts or efforts useless or ineffectual, so that nothing ever comes of them. Baffle suggests causing defeat by confusing, puzzling, or perplexing, so that a situation seems too hard a problem to understand or solve.
Now, don't you like that? I think the whole idea of "cross" is interesting. What did the cross thwart? Death, sin, Satan's power. Thwarted.
I learned something new. And just have to say that this post totally rocks. *APPLAUSE FOR YOU* This could preach!!
PS - I agree with "Not So". The winter tomatoes at the store, and most tomatoes in the stores nowadays taste like Styrofoam. I'm really hoping I'm doing right by my tomatoes. :-)
