Lacrimatory: adj 1: relating to or prompting tears
Yes. I liked this word as soon as I saw it. I guessed its meaning based on Liszt’s use of the word “Lagrimoso” in the heaven passage of “Funerailles.”
Interestingly, though, “lacrimatory” is associated not as much with tears of sadness as with chemical agents like tear gas and pepper spray.
I know little about the science of these things, but I would not have guessed that the vocabulary of chemical weapons science used words that would seem to be associated with sorrow and emotional pain.
They don’t drop “sadness bombs” anywhere, do they?
I played Liszt’s “Funerailles” in high school and college, though I never much liked that piece. I remember a day in high school when I sat down at the piano in the band room and started playing that piece. It was after class and the mood in the room was lively, leading Chris C. to ask “Is there some reason you’re playing this gloomy, depressing music?”
I don’t remember if I said anything in reply, but I probably chuckled and kept playing.
Inappropriate musical choices are sometimes amusing. Recognizing this, Chris’ question was asked in good humor. In the small band room other kids were throwing footballs and goofing off as I plodded through the sorrowful music Liszt was said to have dedicated to Chopin after the Polish composer’s death.
Looking around for more lachr words I spotted Lachrymose, an English word I never knew of until now. For me these lachry-whatever words existed in the past, as musical indications and operatic names.
