the.com/lull
the suspicious quiet that knows exactly what's coming next
means a temporary pause or interval of calm, especially a brief quieting of noise, activity, or a storm before it resumes
from From Middle English 'lullen,' to quiet a child to sleep — an imitative word, born from the soothing 'lu-lu' sounds nurses crooned over cradles across many languages (compare the Swedish 'lulla' and the Sanskrit 'lolati,' to rock). The sense of a calming hush gradually widened from the baby's bedside to any sudden quiet, and 'lullaby' is its direct descendant, the song the word was first humming.
- origin
- imitates the soothing sound of lullabies
- calm before
- named for the eerie quiet before storms
- double life
- means both soothe and dangerous stillness
- market lull
- traders dread the quiet trading hours
brahms lullaby — wiegenlied op. 49 no. 4, composed 1868, most famous lullaby in western music
eye of the storm — meteorological calm lasting minutes to hours at the center of hurricanes and cyclones