Reverie is an example of a word the sense of which has changed somewhat over the centuries. Its original sense was that of madness, delirium or even rage and it derives from the Middle French word reverie or resverie, which meant ‘rejoicing, revelry’. These words ultimately derive from the verb ‘rever’, which meant ‘be delirious’. In the 13th century, this French word meant ‘incoherent thinking’ or ‘absurdity’, but went on to mean ‘deep reflection’ or ‘meditative thought’ in the 15th century. It appeared for the first time in English print in approximately 1350, when a line in London Mediaeval Studies read: “Wyle I werede Robes of Ray þo myst I ride Boþe In my ryot & in Rage and In ryuori”. This Mediaeval English sentence makes little sense to the modern day English speaker, which is interesting in itself when you reflect on how much the English language has changed, but it’s also interesting to note the spelling here of reverie as ryuori. London Mediaeval Studies was written at a time when English spelling was still not standardised—something which would begin to happen in Shakespeare’s era (the Elizabethan era), and so we end up with spellings of reverie such as ryuori, but also reuery or even reuerrysse for the plural.
The modern day sense of reverie is quite different to how life started out for this word. These days, reverie refers to something which is more like a pleasant daydream. Take the song Stardust—written in 1927 but performed sublimely by the great Sarah Vaughan (1924 – 1990) in 1958. Not only does the word reverie pop up during the song (“Sometimes I wonder why I spend The lonely night dreaming of a song The melody haunts my reverie And I am once again with you”), but the melody and Sarah’s voice perfectly encapsulates how it feels to drift off into a reverie. In this day and age, with iphones and high speed internet connections that keep us logging in to get more information, faster, we might forget to spend a moment just to drift off and enjoy a reverie. Stardust sung by Sarah Vaughan might just be a chance to give that a go.
