Word of the Week 2: Syzygy

Meaning: Syzygy refers to the alignment of three celestial bodies in a straight line (like the Sun, Earth, and Moon during an eclipse). But it’s also used metaphorically in literature and philosophy to mean any powerful conjunction or pairing of opposites.

Etymology: It comes from the Greek syzygia (“union, yoking together”), from syn (“together”) + zygon (“yoke”). In English, it first appeared in the 17th century in astronomy and was later adopted by poets and Jungian psychologists for the symbolic alignment of ideas or archetypes.

Example in a Sentence: “In her poem, the syzygy of love and loss created an unsettling tension."