GHRE

The first signals of spring have, and perhaps always will, create a sense of joy. It is therefor hardly surprising that there’s a proto-Germanic word for it; Ghre. Ghre was used to express the feeling one gets from the land turning green again, early spring’s first sight of grasses and foliage after the dark and cold of winter. Ghreeee! It’s a joy we still share with those long gone people. Both the words green and growth find their origin in that moment of joy and in the root-word ghre that expresses it. Ghre-Green-Growth. The positive connotation is confusing once it gets taken out of context. We forget that ghre was never meant to function in isolation but as part of a seasonal cycle. It could only mean what it meant because after summer the green turned yellow and brown again, and shrunk back into the soil. Ghre, growth or green only manifests its essence within this rhythm. Yet society and the economy pursues perpetual spring. No seasons. Growth upon growth, upon growth. In pathology they have a word for that.