Alas in SOUNDING BOARD
- Feb. 10, 2023, 11:19 a.m.
- |
- Public
I’m about to blow some peoples’ minds:
The word “Alas” is not an exclamation of general surprise.
The word “alas” actually means “oh no” or “sadly” or “unfortunately”.
So when you say, “I was looking for you on social media, and alas! I finally found you!” what you are saying is, “I was looking for you on social media, and sadly I finally found you.”
Don’t believe me? Here you go.
6 Comments
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Sleepy-Eyed John ⋅ February 10, 2023
I believe you!
Park Row Fallout ⋅ February 10, 2023
Wait... what? Not to the meaning, to the misusage. I always considered "alas" to be a more emotionally evocative form of "unfortunately"... almost like a verbal sigh to sigh "but no". So, the sample sentence above is... jarring. Only two ways I could read that would be (1) a mistype of "At last"; or (2) a cruel joke where they were hoping not to find the person?