Where does the word relief come from?
I presume many people recently experienced — oh, no particular reason — an overwhelming sense of relief.
Sometimes we get disappinted that we don’t get what we want. But at other times, life hands us something so insufferable that we learn, viscerally, what we don’t want. Often it’s these experiences that surface our deepest values and priorities.
And if we’re so fortunate, there’s a way out of those situations. If we do get to the other side, the resulting sense of relief offers its own kind of sweet joy; often this joy is even more feverish than that experienced when we get something we precisely aimed for.
What is relief anyway?
Perhaps defining it isn’t easy, but you surely know what it feels like; a weight off your shoulders, a gnawing feeling dissipating, a heaviness taken off your chest.
It’s that restoring of a sense of lightness that the word stems from. As you likely know, the prefix “re” means again, back or anew. The second part, “lief,” stems from a Latin word levare meaning “to lift up or lighten.” The old French meaning of relief is literally “a raising.”
To help it make more sense, think of the words “lever” and “levitate,” both originating from the same Latin word levare. If you’re into art, think of the sculptural technique of relief, which gives the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane.
I do think there is a nice figurative parallel between the origin of the word relief and a key historic moment in the election of the first female Vice President yesterday. Women have been systematically suppressed for as long as anyone can remember. This holds true across countries, races, professions, socioeconomic status and age. It’s just pervasive.
As the President-elect himself said, breaking this political barrier was “long overdue.” It’s not an ideal solution, but we do need men in power to step up and raise women if this unnecessary discrimination is going to abate at all. Because this flawed system became the status quo, many girls may not be crying for relief. They may not even have the language to express the burden they accept as inherent.
But I express my gratitude to Mr. Biden who, by elevating one woman, created a small but public crack in this typical barrier. Notice the etymological connection between “relief” and “elevate”?:)
