the.com/benediction
A blessing aimed like a verbal arrow at someone walking out the door.
means A blessing or expression of good wishes spoken over someone, traditionally the formal blessing that closes a religious service.
from Straight from Latin: bene ('well') plus dicere ('to speak'), giving benedictio — literally 'a speaking-well-of.' The same dicere that gives us 'diction,' 'dictate,' and 'verdict' sits at its heart, so a benediction is, at root, just good words said well. It reached English through Church Latin, where it named the priest's parting blessing — and its dark twin, malediction, is built the same way from malus, 'bad.'
- latin roots
- From bene dicere, literally to speak well
- final word
- Traditionally the last line of a church service
- opposite twin
- Malediction is the same word turned to curse
- poetry use
- Poets borrow it to bless ordinary endings