agoläm – a – important, serious [‘to be faced’].
I reflected recently with my therapist on the interesting etymological contrast between our word ‘important’ and Verdurian agoläm. The former suggests something carried or taken within, the latter something more temporarily turned to or faced. The former seems innate and obligatory, even potentially non-consensual, the latter temporary and optional.
We often have a tendency to get too caught up in what seems to be ‘important’ at any one time; I’m liking the idea of trying to see important thoughts and processes more as agoläm and less as ‘important’.
Having said this, it’s curious that both words bear a loose semantic connection to… well, gathering stuff, in some form. ‘Important’ clearly recalls trade and commerce, whilst the bare root which gave birth to agoläm has shifted from a meaning of ‘facing’ to that of ‘looting’. Looters seem to have used the term goler originally to mean ‘to face, to glance over’ (presumably, in order to assuage whether objects were worth looting), thus Modern Verdurian goler ‘to loot’ and gološ ‘loot’.
See also: Řo e agoläm až lavísian
Learning Verdurian 