"USUFRUCT - The right of enjoying a thing, the property of which is vested in another, and to draw from the same all the profit, utility and advantage which it may produce, provided it be without altering the substance of the thing."
What a beatiful word and beautiful concept. Usufruct. That's our relationship to poetry.
A good word, yes. And derived from the Latin verb frui, usually translated "to enjoy" -- though its ancient, nourishing sense (to have the proper use of, as in "I enjoy poetry" (or life)) is utterly different from delectare, also translated "to enjoy," but in the debased, "consumerist" sense of "to get pleasure from" (as in, "I enjoy reality tv" (assuming for the moment that there are those who get pleasure that way)).
ResponderEliminarModern people have confused the senses of these two words, and I'm sometimes tempted to think that most of the sad muck we wade through daily is traceable to that confusion.
If only "usufruct" would become more widely diffused....